Colleges are failing to prepare students for an AI-driven workplace by teaching many of them to treat the technology as cheating, according to Rob Hillard, the CEO of Deloitte's Asia-Pacific branch.
Speaking about the future of work in an interview with Bloomberg this week, Hillard said recent graduates were entering the workforce with a "negative perception" of AI after being taught in college that it is used for cheating.
"Too many are seeing the technology as cheating," he said. "We have to change that."
The Deloitte executive said universities have been slow to make AI a central part of how students prepare for the workplace, and added that changing these perceptions of the technology is key to successfully evolving the workplace as AI evolves.
The only way to invent and design the work of the future is by "working hands-on with the technology, with seeing how you can get the most effective interface between people and machine," Hillard said.
A recent survey from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation of around 3,800 students found that 42% of respondents said that their school discourages the use of AI, and 11% said the technology is prohibited altogether.
That reluctance among educators is partly driven by fears of cheating and by attempts to encourage independent, critical thinking.
But despite reporting restrictions on AI use, more than half — 57% — of US college students said they use AI in their coursework at least weekly, and one in five said they use it daily.
AI use in colleges has come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with several graduation speakers being booed by students when mentioning the tech's growing role in the world.
Consulting's AI anxiety
Anxiety around AI-driven job displacement is particularly acute in the professional services industry.
Top firms, including Deloitte, are racing to embed generative and agentic AI into their workflows, using the new technology to expedite repetitive, data-heavy tasks that were previously left to junior workers. That shift is creating questions about the firms' own education strategies for upskilling junior workers.
Hiring for certain job roles, like management consultants, is down, and Deloitte's fellow Big Four firm PwC has cut all entry-level recruitment in the US by a third over the next three years — in part due to "the impact of AI", Business Insider exclusively reported in August.
Addressing Deloitte's approach to junior workers, Hillard told Bloomberg that the firm is taking on "record numbers of graduates" and investing more than ever in training those graduates for work of the future.
