AI knowledge beats a university degree for one in five companies

As part of its economic survey, the Ifo Institute asked almost 3,000 companies that already use AI whether they see AI as a possible alternative to qualifications and professional experience. Almost 20 percent of those surveyed were positive about the question. Instead of filling the position with highly qualified workers, you can imagine hiring workers without a technical or university degree and supporting them with AI, provided that output and quality remain the same.

The same applies to professional experience. Around 15 percent of the companies surveyed considered it easy to very easy to replace an experienced worker with an AI-using, inexperienced worker.

KI: The dilemma of college graduates?

Accordingly, employers seem to value professional experience somewhat more or find it more difficult to replace than a university degree. This creates a dilemma, especially for graduates: companies may no longer need their academic qualifications in the future, which is why they are not in demand. But how do they get professional experience? A problem that could worsen if employers replace qualifications with AI and are therefore more likely to hire experienced professionals without a technical or university degree.

These sectors were surveyed

The survey still showed very different results in different industries. For the survey, the Ifo Institute surveyed companies from the areas of trade, services, manufacturing, construction and the overall economy. Among retail respondents, 28.6 percent said they could replace technical and university degrees with AI. These are a higher percentage of companies than across all industries. The service industry follows in second place with 19.7 percent, followed by the manufacturing industry (14.6 percent) and the main construction industry (9.3 percent).

Tonia Schöler is a volunteer at Human Resources.