This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Guy Diedrich, Cisco’s global innovation officer, based in Austin. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I began my career as a programmer. I started my own software company right out of college, did a master’s and Ph.D., and then came back and joined academia.
During my time in academia, we began to see a decline in the humanities. Students wanted to take engineering, the sciences, or anything STEM. I found that a bit alarming. I left academia in 2014, but there’s been a 24% drop in interest in the humanities between 2012 and 2022.
As Cisco’s senior vice president and global innovation officer, leading the Digital Impact Office, I’m now responsible for the company’s digital acceleration program and oversee all of our skilling initiatives.
As we entered the AI micro age, which is where we are now, I asked a simple question: If we have access to all the information in the world at our fingertips, what will be the most important skill moving forward?
It’s going to be asking the right questions, like “Should I do this?” The option will be there to do just about anything, which raises questions about ethics, philosophy, and problem-solving. All of that happens to be the bedrock humanities curriculum.
Humanities will play a critical role
Technology is evolving at a rate we’ve never seen. AI has been in the public consciousness for about three and a half years, and it’s moving so fast that it will soon be embedded in everything. It’s going to become ubiquitous, and we’re soon going to transition from AI to the quantum age.
I think that’s going to happen in the next three to five years — and the humanities are going to play a critical role moving forward.
Cisco’s AI consortium report last year revealed that 92% of jobs are going to be moderately or severely impacted by AI, and quite honestly, the others will probably eventually be impacted by AI, too.
With so much of the upfront busy work getting done, what will be important is how it gets implemented responsibly and ethically. Students with an interest in English or philosophy, who have learned how to think critically, and who have been exposed to many different viewpoints, will excel.
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In leadership, having a strong foundation in the humanities allows for better decision-making. When it comes time to ask the hard questions, having a grounding in the humanities helps you think through ethical challenges — and we face them all the time.
You don’t need to major in English
Let’s be honest, it’s not overly difficult to learn how to program. I learned how to program when I was 17, self-taught. A lot of people, even today, are self-taught.
Humanities doesn’t equate. You can’t learn how to think critically and solve problems ethically in weeks or even months. It’s much more of a lifelong endeavor, and when you have that foundation, it becomes extremely valuable to companies.
It’s not that you have to go from studying electrical engineering to philosophy — most of the time, that doesn’t happen. But critical thinking and writing is going to be more important than ever moving forward.
Instead of just taking classes directly related to the technical side of their field, students should be exposed to philosophy, psychology, ethics, problem-solving, and things that are actually going to be embedded into what they do every single day as AI and technology practitioners.
Education used to be an event. You got your degree and you’re set. Now, education is a process. It’s never-ending.
The technology is going to move beyond us, and that’s when companies start to die, when all of a sudden the technology surpasses the very people who are supposed to be managing and utilizing it. People have to take a lifelong learning path.
Having well-rounded skills is essential. Our hope is that employers look at a much more well-rounded individual, who not only has the technical skills but also has the human side and the humanities embedded in their decision-making and coding.
