Good news, students who have decided to double-major in college: Stripe cofounder John Collison predicts that the late nights, schedule juggling, and meticulous planning will be worth it in the age of AI.
Collison, who also serves as Stripe’s president, said he’s “bullish” on double majors and they “will do incredibly well over the next 10 to 20 years.”
“If you understand software and understand marketing, you now can go massively improve the entire marketing funnel for your company,” Collison said earlier this spring on the tech talk show TBPN. “Now, one person can do what would have taken 20 people dredging through all these systems.”
Collison referenced the late Charlie Munger, who served as Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman for over four decades and was Warren Buffett’s business partner.
“Charlie Munger talked about the importance of being multidisciplinary and multidisciplinary thinking,” Collison said. “He thinks getting a functional understanding of many disciplines is not that hard. You can just go read the books now or you can talk to your AI about it. I think multidisciplinary thinkers are going to do incredibly well.”
The number of students choosing to double major is on the rise at many US universities amid job-security concerns, according to analysis published in The Hechinger Report in November.
Marina Villeneuve/The Hechinger Report
Collison also said “high-agency people” would also do well over the coming decades.
“The people at Stripe who have been talking to customers and know exactly what we should do. It’s the people who have that pep in their step and want to go make Stripe better. They are so much more empowered thanks to AI,” he said.
Advancements in AI are reshaping the workforce, changing how companies approach hiring and the skillsets employees are expected to have.
While AI optimists have said the technology can create new jobs and spur economic growth, a vocal segment of critics believes the opposite. AI can automate basic, repetitive tasks, raising concerns that entry-level jobs typically performed by humans will be overhauled by technology. Slowed hiring rates and layoffs earlier this year have also left some new college graduates in a lurch.
One major area of concern has been software engineering, which has been transformed as AI allows people to create code and programs faster than ever. However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. TrueUp, a tech job marketplace and recruiting platform, told Business Insider that tech job openings have risen almost 14% so far in 2026.
Collison, for his part, said people who think AI will herald the death of software engineering are mistaken.
“I think those people are high, honestly,” Collison told TBPN.
