By Reem Makhoul,Jessica Orwig
Publication Date: 2026-02-04 11:53:00
Ex-Microsoft exec Craig Mundie has heard this question again and again — parents asking him a version of the same worry: Their kids are heading toward college, artificial intelligence is advancing fast, and jobs feel uncertain. What, exactly, should their kids be studying?
That question — what education will matter most in five years — reflects a deeper uncertainty about the future.
Mundie, who spent 22 years at Microsoft helping steer the company’s vision toward AI and retired as the company’s chief research and strategy officer in 2014, says that parents are simply asking the wrong question.
It’s not only the students who have to change to fit the new AI era — it’s the education system itself, said Mundie, who now advises other executives on AI and public policy.
Rather than chasing down the right job, Mundie urges families to prepare kids for a world where learning itself becomes continuous, personalized, and done in partnership with intelligent…
