Arkansas State professor says AI could make entry

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Landing a first job could get harder, and artificial intelligence may be a factor.

A Stanford study finds little evidence AI is causing mass job loss, but unemployment numbers are still ticking up. Research shows AI could make the white-collar job market tougher, especially for new graduates trying to get their first job.

Dr. Hrishikesh Desai, director of the Master of Accountancy with Data Analytics and Applied AI program at Arkansas State University, said the university is helping prepare students for this new reality.

“Universities and academics will have to teach students how to self-learn something using AI. And that is what we’ve done. So, we’ve integrated AI throughout our curriculum, and it’s kind of at an applied level. So, we want students to try to prompt AI and use it for a whole wide range of users,” Desai said.

Desai said AI is not just taking work away. It is also making many upper-level jobs easier.

“It’s taking the medium-skilled and the highly skilled workers and kind of making them even better, right? So, it’s improving their productivity,” Desai said.

Stanford research backs that up. Instead of replacing workers, many companies are using AI tools to help people do their jobs faster. AI can speed up routine tasks, and the biggest productivity gains, as much as 30%, often go to less-experienced workers.

Desai said the key is how people respond to these changes.

“I would say the way to approach this is not to freak out, but to keep learning, keep getting certifications in AI, keep trying to upskill using different AI tools, and try to integrate different forms of AI in your life,” Desai said.

Desai said he believes AI is not a fad and is something students and employers will be living with for a long time.

“I would say this is going to stick around, because I think it’s completely revolutionary. I’ve seen a lot of schools change their degrees to incorporate AI. I don’t know if you know this, but even at Arkansas State, we changed our Master of Accountancy degree to incorporate Applied AI,” Desai said.

Desai also said AI is far from perfect. It can still make mistakes and invent information, something he said he has already seen with his own students.

“I just had a student today use an AI tool and she was telling me that it couldn’t solve a basic accounting problem. So, the reason being, it hallucinated. It kept giving her wrong answers, even though she was prompting the tool, trying to tell that tool, okay, you are heading in the wrong direction,” Desai said.

Desai said AI’s impact depends on the job. He said people should not rely completely on AI and should always double-check their work.

To report a typo or correction, please click here.

Copyright 2026 KAIT. All rights reserved.