Will AI Bring a Return to the Humanities? Why the Smartest Students May Want to Rethink STEM.

The conventional wisdom is cracking — and one of the biggest names in tech just said what many of us in education have been thinking for years.

For the last two decades, the message to students and families has been relentless: learn to code, pursue STEM, and secure your future. It was a compelling narrative, and for a while, it seemed like an airtight strategy. But something is shifting — and it's not coming from professors in ivory towers. It's coming from the people who built the technology itself.

Reed Hastings, the co-founder and outgoing chairman of Netflix, recently appeared on the Possible podcast and delivered a message that should make every parent and student rethink what "future-proof" education actually looks like. Hastings — who holds a master's degree in computer science and artificial intelligence from Stanford — argued that AI excels at structured, logic-driven work but struggles to replicate emotional intelligence, cultural understanding, and human connection. His prediction? A "rotation back to the humanities."

His exact words are worth sitting with: "If I had a three-year-old today, I would be doubling down on the emotional skills."

He went further, noting that for the past twenty years, society has pushed STEM and coding as the golden ticket. But now? "As everyone sees that coding is overdone, my guess is we'll see that STEM is overdone."

This isn't just talk. Hastings put $50 million of his own money behind this conviction, donating to his alma mater Bowdoin College to establish the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity — a program dedicated to researching AI's impact on society and preparing leaders to engage with it responsibly. He's betting that liberal arts institutions, not just technical powerhouses, will play a crucial role in shaping how we navigate the AI era.

He's not the only one saying this.

Google's NotebookLM editorial director Steven Johnson has described our current moment as the "revenge of the humanities," noting that graduates with strong backgrounds in language, narrative, and human behavior are increasingly in demand to shape the tone, empathy, and conversational nuance of large language models. In an era of powerful AI tools, the ability to guide them with nuance may prove more valuable than the raw ability to build them.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum reports that humanities enrollments in U.S. higher education are down 17% over the past decade, and dozens of liberal arts programs have shuttered. The irony is hard to miss: just as the market may be turning back toward the skills these programs teach — critical thinking, ethical reasoning, communication, creativity — fewer students are choosing to develop them.

As someone who works in law school admissions consulting every day, I find this moment deeply relevant to the families I serve.

What This Means for Students Considering Law School

Here's what many families don't realize: the humanities have always been among the strongest foundations for law school — and that advantage may only grow in the age of AI.

According to the Law School Admissions Council, approximately 20.5% of all law school applicants come from arts and humanities backgrounds. Data from LSAC shows that humanities majors have historically performed as well on the LSAT as their peers in the social sciences and come remarkably close to STEM majors. Philosophy majors, in particular, are known to score among the highest, and history and English majors have boasted roughly 79% and 76% law school acceptance rates, respectively.

Why? Because law school fundamentally rewards the skills the humanities build: close reading, persuasive writing, logical reasoning, ethical analysis, and the ability to construct and deconstruct arguments. These are the same skills that AI cannot easily replicate and that Reed Hastings is urging the next generation to develop.

As one law school co-interim dean put it, "Understanding and applying the law requires rigorous thinking and good writing skills [that] are hallmarks of a humanities degree."

The legal profession itself is evolving in the age of AI. Routine legal research, document review, and contract analysis are increasingly being handled by AI tools. What remains irreplaceable is the lawyer who can empathize with a client, exercise judgment in ambiguous situations, craft a compelling narrative before a jury, and navigate the deeply human dynamics of negotiation and advocacy. These aren't STEM skills. They're humanities skills. They're human skills.

What This Means for Your Student Right Now

If you're a parent watching your teenager agonize over whether to pursue a "practical" major versus something they're genuinely passionate about — English, philosophy, history, political science, art history — I'd encourage you to take a breath. The landscape is changing.

That doesn't mean STEM is worthless. It doesn't mean your student shouldn't learn how AI works or develop technological literacy. The most competitive applicants to top law schools (and graduate programs of all kinds) are increasingly those who can bridge both worlds — who understand technology and possess the distinctly human capacities that make that technology meaningful.

But the pendulum is swinging. The qualities that will be hardest to automate — empathy, storytelling, ethical reasoning, cultural literacy, the ability to connect with another human being — are exactly what the humanities cultivate. And in a world where AI can write code, draft contracts, and analyze data, the person who can ask the right questions, see the bigger picture, and communicate with authenticity will have an extraordinary edge.

Reed Hastings sees it. Google sees it. The World Economic Forum sees it. And from where I sit — helping students craft their paths into the nation's best law schools — I see it every single day.

The students who will thrive in the age of AI aren't the ones who learned to think like machines. They're the ones who learned to think like humans.

Ready to start building your path?

Whether your student is exploring the humanities, pivoting from STEM, or trying to figure out how their unique interests and strengths translate into a compelling law school application, I can help. I work with families and students to build strategic, authentic roadmaps — from undergraduate major selection and extracurricular positioning all the way through personal statements, application strategy, and LSAT planning.

The admissions landscape is changing. The conversation about what makes a competitive applicant is evolving. Let's make sure your student is ahead of the curve, not behind it.