Humanities graduate in the age of AI? Tech giants need your skills

As engineering tasks become increasingly automated, companies are prioritising emotional intelligence, ethics and adaptability over traditional engineering degrees

When Meta-owned WhatsApp named CRED founder Kunal Shah as its global chief executive officer (CEO), jaws dropped across the Indian technology and startup ecosystem.

 

One of the most talked-about aspects of the appointment is that Shah, 47, is a Philosophy graduate, meaning a former humanities student will lead the world’s largest instant messaging platform.

 

Yet, Shah is no aberration. As artificial intelligence (AI) masters complex engineering tasks, tech giants are increasingly hiring from the liberal arts. Google DeepMind in April hired ethicist Henry Shevlin as “philosopher” to “work on machine consciousness, human-AI relationships, and AGI [artificial general intelligence] readiness”, according to the scholar.

 

Interestingly, when leaders of frontier AI companies comment on what they consider while hiring, they say they prioritise humanities backgrounds and soft skills. 

  Liberal arts education is increasingly useful in the AI era, said Daniela Amodei, cofounder of Anthropic, in an interview with ABC News. “I think studying humanities is going to be more important than ever. Because a lot of these [AI] models are good at STEM. But there are things that make us uniquely human — and that will always be important,” she said, referring to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 

Anthropic seeks to hire people who are communicators, have emotional quotient and are compassionate and curious, she said.

 

Santosh Janardhan, senior vice-president (VP) for infrastructure at Meta, recently told Business Standard the skills he considers while hiring. “We certainly place greater emphasis on certain qualities. We focus on non-technical skills, particularly resilience and adaptability. Those qualities are difficult to measure. You look at a person’s track record, ask questions, and try to understand how they approach problems. Are they rigid in their thinking, or are they willing to adapt?”

 

India’s AI ecosystem is reflecting this global shift. Data from foundit highlights a shift towards skills-first hiring, with the share of technology jobs that don’t require a degree increasing 4 per cent in FY23 to 17 per cent in FY26.

 

Hiring for non-technical roles is estimated to have grown by 12 per cent in FY24, accelerating to 18 per cent in FY25 and rising by more than 20 per cent in FY26 as organisations build AI teams that combine technical expertise with human-centric capabilities, according to foundit’s data.

 

“The rise of generative AI is reshaping traditional hiring patterns, creating opportunities for professionals beyond conventional engineering backgrounds. AI-native firms and technology companies are increasingly hiring graduates from humanities, liberal arts and social sciences for roles that require creativity, communication, critical thinking and human-centric problem-solving,” said Anupama Bhimrajka, VP, marketing, foundit.

 

The bigger argument to hire humanities graduates is that as AI models get better, there is a need to focus on ethics and spot biases. A report by the Economist, which cited data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that students graduating with a Philosophy degree in the US are more likely to get a job than a computer science student. No wonder then that prompt engineer, which requires natural language expertise along with technology expertise, has become a sought-after role in the AI age.

 

Driven by the impact of AI on entry-level jobs, a shift towards skills-based hiring is underway in the Indian tech ecosystem. Multiple CEOs interviewed by Business Standard over the last 18 months agree that AI is turning this shift into a reality.

 

“I think this whole template of studying in school for the first 25 years of your life, then drawing from that learning for the next 50 years before retiring … I don't think that is necessarily the best template,” Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar told Business Standard earlier when asked if the tech industry should consider skill-based hiring.

 

“The better model may be to not just have a degree, but to be an apprentice, and then continue with learning capsules throughout your life. You draw from that learning every now and then, and institutions, including businesses, become lifelong learning platforms. I think that is probably the new template that is going to evolve,” he said. 

 

The CEO of an information technology firm said that an engineering degree is like quality assurance from a third party. But “an under-grad degree is like a least resistance path. But AI can be a great equalizer,” he said.

 

Regarding Shah’s appointment at WhatsApp, HR experts note it is less about his educational background and more about the company’s strategic focus.

 

“Transitional moments, where enterprises have undertaken a significant change in their positioning, switch in commercial pathway or recalibrating market access for a turnaround have involved an appointment of an outsider or a cross-functional leader,” said Kamal Karanth, cofounder of Xpheno, a talent solutions company.

 

“In our observation, Kunal Shah’s appointment coincides with one such transition that WhatsApp is undertaking to evolve into a commerce and payments platform, from being a communication platform,” he said.

 

Karanth is right: WhatsApp already has top-tier engineering and tech talent. What Shah brings is much-needed functional, sectoral and geographic expertise.