As AI capability grows, graduate employment expert Charlie Ball argues that choosing a degree simply to "AI-proof" a career is difficult, since technology is changing too fast to predict what a 45-year working life will look like. He suggests the priority should be building adaptable skills rather than chasing a single safe subject, though certain fields are likely to remain more resistant to automation than others because they rely on human judgement, physical presence or face-to-face trust.

Ball highlights several such areas: research and development, where human creativity is needed to discover genuinely new things beyond what AI can draw from existing data; engineering, particularly large-scale physical work like civil engineering; and the creative arts, where he argues AI can only "remix" existing material rather than produce an original voice. He also points to medicine, nursing and midwifery, and education, arguing that people will continue to want humans delivering difficult health news, providing care, and supporting pastoral needs, even as AI tools become more embedded in these sectors.