As artificial intelligence advances at a rapid pace, one of the recurring questions people ask is whether college will still matter. Some argue that higher education will become irrelevant altogether. I believe that conclusion is misguided. Colleges and universities will continue to matter in the age of AI—but the way education is delivered, accessed, and priced is likely to change in meaningful and, in many ways, positive ways.
One reason people assume college will become irrelevant is the belief that AI will eventually exceed human intelligence. That may very well happen. But it does not follow that human intelligence will therefore become irrelevant. In fact, recognizing that distinction is where the real opportunity lies. Intelligence alone has never been the sole reason education mattered in the first place.
An analogy helps clarify the point.
AI can already generate impressive music. Songs created with the help of AI have become commercially successful, and anyone can now type a few prompts into a system and hear a polished composition moments later. That’s remarkable. But it doesn’t follow from this that people will stop wanting to hear other humans play music. If anything, the opposite may be true. As more aspects of work become automated, people may value human creativity and performance even more.
Even if AI can generate great bass lines, I will still want to see Victor Wooten or John Patitucci play bass. Their skill, expression, and presence cannot be reduced to output alone. That means there will continue to be demand for humans who can play music well—and therefore a continued need for humans to learn music. Institutions and systems that teach people to develop these skills will still matter.
What will change is access and cost. Music education is likely to become far more widely available. If high-quality instruction can be delivered at little or no cost through AI-assisted tools, then formal musical education may persist without requiring enormous financial investment. Conservatories, as they exist today, may not disappear—but they may become more accessible, lower cost, and increasingly integrated with AI-driven instruction.
This distinction—between relevance and scarcity—is crucial. Much of what people associate with college today is not education itself, but the artificial scarcity around it: limited seats, high tuition, and credentials that function as gatekeepers. When the marginal cost of instruction drops, that scarcity weakens. But the developmental aspects of education—learning how to think, how to engage ideas, how to work with others, and how to grow over time—do not disappear simply because information becomes cheaper.
The same logic applies beyond music. We will still have doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals in the age of AI. But imagine a world in which healthcare education becomes dramatically less expensive and far more accessible. AI may handle much routine care, while human providers remain available when people want—or need—human judgment, presence, and responsibility. In such a world, education still matters deeply, even if its price and structure look very different.
In fact, this pattern may repeat across many fields. As AI reduces the cost of transmitting knowledge and demonstrating techniques, the value of education shifts away from memorization and toward adaptability. Learning becomes less about acquiring static information and more about developing transferable skills—communication, problem-solving, judgment, and the ability to apply knowledge in new and changing contexts. These are capacities that remain valuable even as tools and systems evolve.
Thinking about these possibilities matters because humans need meaning, purpose, and opportunities to develop themselves while contributing to others. A future in which AI “does everything” and humans are left with nothing to do is not only unlikely—it’s unnecessarily pessimistic. The future is shaped not just by technology itself, but by how creatively we choose to integrate it into our institutions and lives.
College may not become irrelevant. But it may lose its scarcity. And that shift—if handled well—could expand opportunity rather than diminish it.