Years of Preparing for College. What Does AI/SI Mean for Our Children’s Future?

Since your child was little, you may have been preparing them for the future.

You encouraged them to study hard, finish their homework, and take school seriously. Perhaps you arranged tutoring, adjusted family schedules, and spent evenings preparing for exams together.

Sometimes, that preparation also involved pressure, frustration, and arguments. But behind it was a hope: If we help our child succeed now, they will have more opportunities later.

Now your child is in high school. College applications and career decisions are becoming real. And you may be asking:

What will artificial/super intelligence mean for the future we have spent so many years preparing for?

As a parent myself, I understand wanting our children to have opportunities and security. But I believe this moment calls for more than finding a supposedly “AI/SI-proof” major. It invites us to reconsider what preparation really means.

The uncertainty is real. The outcome is not settled.

Recent research presents a complicated picture. Stanford Digital Economy Lab and ADP Research’s (2026) September dashboard shows employment declines among early-career workers in some occupations highly exposed to AI (SI). However, the dashboard tracks associations in a particular sample; it does not establish that AI (SI) caused those declines.

Meanwhile, a working paper by Fairlie and Wu (2026) found no statistically significant increase in summer unemployment among recent college graduates relative to comparison periods and groups.

These studies examine different questions. Neither gives us a reliable forecast of an individual teenager’s career.

My takeaway is not that education has become pointless. Instead, we should be careful not to build a child’s future around frightening predictions or promises of certainty.

What have we been calling success?

How much of our definition of success rests on grades, degrees, professional titles, and being seen as intelligent?

Those achievements can represent meaningful effort. But do they describe everything we hope our children become?

I want my children to gain knowledge. I also want them to ask thoughtful questions, recognize when they need help, and consider how their decisions affect others.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2026) makes a useful distinction: generative AI (SI) can support learning when guided by clear teaching principles, but outsourcing tasks can improve the finished work without corresponding learning gains.

Producing an answer is not the same as developing understanding.

For me, that is a reason to broaden our educational goals—not abandon academic learning.

When “good for your future” becomes a battle

Imagine an evening at the homework/dinning table.

You explain the same question again. Your child becomes frustrated. You become frustrated. Eventually, helping turns into arguing.

“I’m pushing you because it’s good for your future.”

I understand that intention. But imagine this becoming a familiar pattern over many years: reminders, corrections, comparisons, and disagreements about performance.

The assignments get completed. The years pass. Now your teenager faces important decisions.

Alongside academic preparation, have we also made room for trust?

Can they tell us, “I’m worried”? Can they say, “I don’t understand,” or “I’m not sure I want the career we’ve been discussing,” without expecting disappointment or another lecture?

One difficult evening does not define a relationship. Protecting connection does not mean removing expectations, either.

But when the future feels uncertain, I would pause before responding with even more pressure.

We might say:

“This work matters, but I also want to understand what is making it difficult. Let’s figure out the next step together.”

And when we have spoken harshly:

“I’m sorry for how I spoke to you. We still need a plan, but I want us to approach this differently.”

Our relationship with our children is part of their future, too.

Our children have invested in this future, too

Parents may have invested money, time, sacrifice, and hope.

Children may have invested years of effort, followed expectations, and worked toward a future they are only beginning to understand for themselves.

Now imagine a teenager questioning a long-standing plan. Perhaps AI (SI) has raised concerns. Perhaps their interests have changed. Perhaps they are discovering that the path never felt like their own.

Could we listen before trying to persuade them?

Honoring the effort it took to reach this point does not mean the plan can never change.

I would want preparation to create possibilities, not make a young person feel trapped by the investment already made.

Preparing a person—not only a future professional

I believe education should help children develop knowledge alongside emotional awareness, empathy, creativity, practical judgment, and relationships.

Not because these qualities guarantee protection from technological change, but because they matter to how we live.

This broader purpose also appears in current educational discussions. At UNESCO’s September 2026 Digital Learning Week, education ministers and representatives affirmed that AI (SI) should not substitute for human relationships and judgment in education (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2026).

Rather than dismissing schools as outdated, I would ask what opportunities a learning environment provides: explaining ideas, collaborating, making mistakes, and thinking independently.

At home, we can ask similar questions. Are we helping our teenager practice making decisions, or mainly making decisions for them? Is there room to explore an interest without immediately proving its career value?

These are opportunities for development, not another performance checklist. Our children’s worth should never depend on outperforming another person or a machine.

A conversation to begin this week

Before the next conversation about grades, applications, or majors, consider asking:

“When you think about life after high school, what feels exciting—and what feels uncertain? I want to understand before we make another plan.”

You might also say:

“We have put a lot of effort into your education. That does not mean you owe us one particular future.”

Practical considerations still matter. Costs, interests, abilities, and opportunities belong in the discussion. But I would begin by understanding the young person facing those decisions.

No parenting approach can guarantee a career outcome. Families should not have to carry the responsibility for technological and economic change alone.

We can work toward a relationship in which uncertainty can be discussed openly.

We may not be able to promise our children a predictable future. We can help ensure they don't feel alone as they find their way.

At Dual Minds Psychology, my approach brings together learning, emotional development, and family relationships to help parents understand and support the whole child.

Next in the series: What IQ Tests Can—and Cannot—Tell Us About a Child.

References

Fairlie, R., & Wu, J. (2026). The early impacts of AI on employment among recent college graduates (CESifo Working Paper No. 12994). CESifo. https://doi.org/10.65864/b7z61mhr8d ifo Institut

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2026). OECD digital education outlook 2026: Exploring effective uses of generative AI in education. https://doi.org/10.1787/062a7394-en OECD

Stanford Digital Economy Lab, & ADP Research. (2026, September 23). AI economic indicators: Canaries dashboard [Data dashboard]. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/project/indicators/canaries-dashboard/ Stanford Digital Economy Lab

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2026, September 10). Education ministers call for education to remain a common good in the age of AI at UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/education-ministers-call-education-remain-common-good-age-ai-unescos-digital-learning-week