Grads boo AI at commencement ceremonies
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Is it just us or has college graduation season felt a little robotic this year?
The big picture: The class of 2026 is entering a job market that's on ice as employers anticipate how AI will change their workforce needs.
- So, many grads weren't jazzed about the technology's front-and-center role in their graduation ceremonies.
Driving the news: Glendale Community College relied on AI to read its graduates' names last week, to spectacular failure.
- The system malfunctioned, announcing names in the incorrect order and skipping many others altogether.
- "Here's what's happening. We're using a new AI system as our reader," college president Tiffany Hernandez said, to a chorus of boos, during the ceremony.
Meanwhile, boos began the moment former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, U of A's commencement speaker, took the stage last Friday.
- And they picked up steam every time he mentioned AI.
What they're saying: "It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person, and every relationship you have. I know what many of you are feeling about that, I can hear you," Schmidt said.
Zoom out: Other tech-focused graduation speakers received similar responses nationwide, signaling widespread anxiety over AI's impact on the entry-level workforce.
Grads have some empirical evidence to back up their fears:
- The unemployment rate for recent grads was 5.7% in Q4 2025. That's above the national rate (4.2%), which almost never happens.
- Underemployment for recent grads is 42.5%, the highest since 2020.
Between the lines: AI is not the root cause of all the job market woes, but it's catching almost all of the blame, per recent polling.
- Gen Z's excitement about AI dropped 14 points over the last year to just 22%, according to Gallup polling released last month.
- Hopefulness about the technology fell nine points to 18%, while anger rose nine points to 31%.
The bottom line: For 70 years, a bachelor's degree was the most reliable on-ramp to a stable career. That's no longer true, Axios' Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei wrote in a recent "Behind the Curtain" column.