I've been fascinated by the boom in university CS departments since I was a CS major myself during the low point between 1999-2001 and the start of the current boom. At my alma mater with a total undergrad enrollment between 10-20k, my graduating class of CS majors had just 23 people. The department didn't even have its own building. For a number of years now, CS has been the most popular major there (graduating hundreds per year) and the CS department's newly constructed building is perhaps the most iconic building in the whole city (it's an urban campus). I keep asking myself how long this can really go on.
I have little doubt, by the way, that the booming compensation for software folks in recent years is partially a function of how few people in their mid-30s to early-40s today did CS degrees during undergrad.
For undergrads today, though, I suppose the good question is "what else is there?" (i.e. providing a path to an upper-middle class American lifestyle). Pre-med programs have long been over-enrolled with med school admissions being super competitive. Business and law degrees only matter if they come from the top schools where admissions have long been super competitive. My own kids will start having to figure this out soon, and I don't know what I'll suggest.
Business, law, and medicine are still pretty "high touch" and I think will be for a long time. Nobody is really going to trust an AI for legal or medical advice -- even if the use of AI becomes more common in those professions (which I expect) people want a human connection or a human handshake (or a human to blame).
AI for software though? It will decimate employment in that field as soon as it's good enough. Nobody cares who or what wrote their software. It's been amusing to me to watch the software profession build the tools of its own destruction.
As far as the future, I would advise looking at professions where a high degree of human-to-human interaction is important. But certainly I have no crystal ball, maybe people of the future will be fine with getting care from a Star Trek "Medical Hologram" doctor.
I have little doubt, by the way, that the booming compensation for software folks in recent years is partially a function of how few people in their mid-30s to early-40s today did CS degrees during undergrad.
For undergrads today, though, I suppose the good question is "what else is there?" (i.e. providing a path to an upper-middle class American lifestyle). Pre-med programs have long been over-enrolled with med school admissions being super competitive. Business and law degrees only matter if they come from the top schools where admissions have long been super competitive. My own kids will start having to figure this out soon, and I don't know what I'll suggest.