A more frightening scenario is that universities and employers stick with yesterday’s playbook while AI takes on the work that once justified junior hires, leaving us with a generation of over-credentialed, under-employed alumni. A society that promises upward mobility but delivers diminishing returns on effort is a powder keg. Mishandle this transition, and we could end up with a lost generation of privileged young graduates whose pricey degrees no longer guarantee success and the less privileged who never had the chance to board the escalator in the first place. If we’re not proactive, I fear the latter is the more likely outcome.