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“If I had a 3-year-old today, I would be doubling down on the emotional skills,” Hastings reportedly said during a podcast.
File Photo: Reed Hastings, former CEO and current chairman of the board at Netflix, photographed in Mumbai.(ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT)Reed Hastings, cofounder, former CEO, and now chairman of the board at Netflix, on an episode of the Possible podcast last week, said AI will shift what universities prioritise in the future, Fortune has reported.
Hastings chose STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for his own education, completing his graduation in Mathematics from Bowdoin College in Maine, and post graduation in computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) from Stanford.
Having studied AI back in the 1980’s, he thinks today’s AI revolution will bring back the emphasis on Humanities as a field of study.
“STEM practically took over Stanford University. Now maybe what we’ll see is a rotation back to the Humanities and to understanding a combination of history and literature,” Hastings reportedly said. “If I had a 3-year-old today, I would be doubling down on the emotional skills,” he added.
No Country for Techies?
Hastings’s comments come close on the heels of sweeping layoffs announced by technology giants, including Meta, Snap, Oracle and Microsoft, earlier this month driven by push for AI-led efficiencies. The share of tech job postings open to people with two to four years’ experience dropped to 40% in mid-2025 from 46% in mid-2022, Fortune reported, citing data from jobs website Indeed.
In February, Anthropic’s Claude Code creator Boris Cherny had predicted that the title of ‘software engineer’ may even go extinct by the end of 2026 as practically anyone can write code, thanks to a bunch of AI tools. However, Hastings was skeptical that AI can replace software engineers completely.
“There’s a substantial chance that while many companies will have reduced software engineering employment, there’ll be many other opportunities for more software,” he reportedly said on the podcast.
Yes to Humanities
Yet, Hastings seems to be betting on the idea that Humanities will matter more in the post-AI future. Last year, he donated $50 million to his alma mater Bowdoin College to establish the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity. The funding will help Bowdoin hire 10 new faculty members, and fund research on AI’s impact on society.
While Hastings foresees sweeping changes in education and work, he is more optimistic than ever about the future and the role that AI will play in improving the world.
“The next 20 years will be super exciting, and I think it will usher in this era of abundance,” he said.
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