Convocation Speaker Offers Tips on AI and the Future Job Market

Convocation Speaker Offers Tips on AI and the Future Job Market

Professor of Economics Erik Nelson offered advice to the incoming Class of 2029 on how to prepare for the job market when they graduate-a job market likely to be made much more challenging by artificial intelligence (AI): lean into your liberal arts education.

Nelson, who specializes in environmental economics, was the keynote speaker at this year's Convocation ceremony on September 1, 2025. The event is held every year to celebrate the start of the academic year and welcome Bowdoin's new cohort of students.

Nelson, who specializes in environmental economics, was the keynote speaker at this year's Convocation ceremony on September 1, 2025. The event is held at the start of the academic year and welcomes Bowdoin's new cohort of students. The ceremony was held in Pickard Theater and was officiated by President Safa Zaki.

Nelson said his talk, "High Anxiety: The Liberal Arts, AI, and the Job Market," was prompted by several recent unsettling articles and think-pieces claiming that AI, especially tools using large language models, will increasingly replace many of the entry-level, white-collar positions that new college graduates have typically filled.

What to do after graduation is probably the last thing on the mind of incoming first-years, said Nelson, whose son is a first-year student at another liberal arts college. "For most of you, postcollege thoughts are a vague shimmer that will be dealt with sometime in the future," he said. "But if your parents and guardians are anything like my wife and me, postcollege plans are an immediate concern."

Nelson quoted some warnings from prominent business leaders about the threat of AI to graduate job prospects in the near future and told the students that an excellent liberal arts education, such as the one Bowdoin provides, can give them "a competitive edge in the job market of the future" if they play their cards right. He also offered some advice on how to shape their Bowdoin education to prepare as much as possible for the emerging world of AI-assisted work and higher prices.

First and foremost, he said, future employers are already looking for workers who have skills AI cannot replicate. Nelson cited a recent working paper on the type and frequency of tasks performed by American workers between 2016 and 2024. "Jobs that have recently become more prevalent in the labor market are ones with tasks that relied on empathy, emotional intelligence, connectedness, judgment, creativity, imagination, vision, and leadership." These, said Nelson, are the exact tasks that advanced AI systems struggle with most. "Not surprisingly," he added, "the authors found that occupations that concentrate in these tasks are most resilient to AI intrusion and at least risk for automation."

These qualities are central planks of the liberal arts education students are about to receive at Bowdoin, said Nelson, citing a couple of the many classes available to them that embody these qualities.

"Consider Professor Fernando Nascimento's course Ethics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, where students use an array of literary and cinematic narratives to enrich their understanding of AI as it relates to those who develop it, those who use it, and those who seek to create policies governing its applications in society," he said. "Or Professor Eileen Johnson's course Building Resilient Communities, where students learn how local communities collaborate with state, federal, private, and nonprofit sectors to strengthen local economies, protect public health, address issues of economic and social justice, and implement adaptation strategies to counter environmental change."

Nelson told the incoming students that these courses, like many others offered at Bowdoin, will provide them with the skills, insights, and vision that will be desperately needed in the future but that AI cannot provide. He then offered some advice to follow over the next four years to help the Class of 2029 prepare for life after graduation. His advice included cultivating a love of work outside of the classroom, being open to the possibility that a career may have nothing to do with the chosen major, and writing as much as possible without the help of AI tools like ChatGPT. "Writing will make you a better thinker and eventually a better worker."

Reverend Robert Ives '69 delivered the invocation. Ives, who retired seven years ago as Bowdoin's director of religious and spiritual life, began his address by winding the clock back sixty years, to September 1965, when he was an incoming first-year.

"I was sitting here in Pickard Theater right where you are sitting now," he reflected, doubtless feeling the same mixture of excitement and trepidation that many members of the Class of 2029 are feeling. "Would I be able to do the work? Did the admissions office make a mistake in accepting me? Would students actually like me? Would I feel 'at home' at home in this new environment?"

His uncertainty on arriving at Bowdoin was combined with a deep sadness, said Ives, who lost both his parents during his final two years of high school. The country was also in a turbulent state, with the Vietnam War getting more intense and political unrest brewing at home.

Despite all these concerns, said Ives, Bowdoin became a "home" in ways he could never have imagined. "My roommates became the dearest of friends that I still treasure to this day. Professors were not only excellent educators but became mentors and wellsprings of wisdom. Administrators offered counsel and friendship that guided me when I was confused and encouraged me when I felt lost."

Ives told the incoming class members he hopes they too experience this "beloved college as home, as a sanctuary for the remarkable journey of learning, growth, and transformation that lies ahead."

President Zaki offered a warm welcome to the new students, assuring them that while the transition to college can seem overwhelming, there are many people on campus to help.

Zaki spoke of the challenges facing higher education and noted that the College is well placed to meet these challenges. She gave the examples of three initiatives that underline Bowdoin's strength as a model learning community: a pollinator garden project, which highlights Bowdoin's dedication to sustainability by rewilding several patches of lawn across campus to convert them to pollinator habitat; as part of its broader work, the Hastings Initiative for Artificial Intelligence and Humanity offers events, workshops, campus conversations, and a hackathon to help students prepare to thrive in a world reshaped by AI; and the newly renovated Sills Hall, which provides new campus space for the teaching of languages, cinema studies, and classics, underscoring Bowdoin's commitment to the humanities.

Zaki urged the incoming class to use the next four years to consider new perspectives and add their voices to shared conversations as they embrace a willingness to grow.

As Jim Hoppe, senior vice president and dean for student affairs, welcomed the new students, he reeled off some interesting facts about the Class of 2029: "Fourteen thousand and forty-five people applied to attend Bowdoin this fall, and we welcome 515 first-year students and twelve transfer students to campus. You've come to Bowdoin from forty-four states, the District of Columbia, and fifty different countries. Forty percent of you speak more than one language, and 30 percent speak a language other than English at home."

He added that the cohort includes twenty-three former student body presidents, twenty-seven referees, a nationally ranked sailor, and someone fluent in Elvish. One student has earned all 139 Boy Scout merit badges, one is a master kazoo player, and one knows how to operate a nuclear reactor.

Each new student, said Hoppe, brings a story of persistence, curiosity, and discovery. "Some of you balanced caregiving while in high school, some overcame health challenges, some took a gap year, and all of you bring perspectives that will make our community stronger."