AI strengthens the need for higher education, says Capgemini Norge CEO

In a debate piece, Karl Thomas Reinertsen, CEO of Capgemini Norge, argues that AI strengthens the need for higher education, but that new graduates now compete with AI for their first job. He says public buyers and IT suppliers must solve this together. The piece follows a "couples therapy" session with Norway's digitalisation minister, organised by the industry association Abelia, where both sides agreed they depend on each other. Reinertsen says mixed signals from the public sector create uncertainty, including for the next generation.

He notes that young people were advised in recent years to pick studies AI cannot do, and that they have ignored this advice. 150,856 people applied for higher education this year, six percent more than last year. Business and administration is now the second-largest field, up eight percent on last year and 85 percent since 2019. Information technology is moving the other way, with 5,456 first-choice applicants, down 2.5 percent and the second year of decline in a row.

The job market for graduates is tougher. A NIFU graduate survey, conducted last year and published this year, finds that 52 percent of master's graduates found it harder than expected to get a relevant job, up from 37 percent two years ago. Unemployment six months after completing a master's is 9.5 percent, against 4.5 percent for the population overall. It is eight percent among technology graduates and 12 percent among business and administration graduates. Stanford Digital Economy Lab researchers find a marked fall in employment among 22–25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed occupations, including software development, since late 2022. Where AI mainly augments human work, employment grows.

Reinertsen welcomes the government's start on a new national AI strategy and hopes it will be clear that suppliers and the public sector should make better use of each other's expertise as partners. He cites an Abelia report, "Verdien av gode råd", showing the public sector buys advisory services to access specialist skills, which develop over time through daily work. His proposal: the state and municipalities spend tens of billions of kroner a year on IT and consulting, so tenders should specifically ask for newly graduated staff.