Year: 2026 | Month: February | Volume: 13 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 81-96
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20260209
From Degrees to Responsibilities: How Artificial Intelligence Reshapes Academic Work, Skills, and Educational Credentials
Aileen Behrensmeier1, Tobias Oberdieck2, Enrico Moch3, Peter Schlecht4
1Researcher, Department of Economics, GrandEdu Research School, Germany
2CEO, GrandEdu GmbH, Germany
3Academic Director, Department of Economics, GrandEdu Research School, Germany
4CEO, GrandEdu GmbH, Germany
Corresponding Author: Aileen Behrensmeier
ABSTRACT
The increasing use of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is transforming knowledge-intensive and academically characterised work. While a growing body of research examines the effects of AI on tasks, skills and wages, the role of academic education and formal qualifications under conditions of AI-driven task reconfiguration remains conceptually fragmented. This article addresses this gap by applying a task-based approach to analyse how AI reshapes academic activities and how these changes affect skill requirements, income trajectories and the functional role of academic degrees. The analysis is based on a systematic thematic review of international, peer-reviewed studies from labour economics, education research and institutional analyses, complemented by an analytical case study. Academic activities are differentiated into highly substitutable task bundles, AI-complementary task bundles and responsibility-centred task bundles. The findings indicate that income stability is increasingly associated with tasks involving validation, coordination and decision-making responsibility, while activities centred on standardised knowledge reproduction face declining relative importance. The article shows that academic degrees are not generally devalued by AI diffusion. Instead, their role is functionally reconfigured. Degrees increasingly operate as institutional signals, access mechanisms and markers of formally assigned responsibility rather than as simple indicators of knowledge possession. The case study illustrates how academic education can be structured to remain relevant by systematically preparing graduates for AI-complementary and responsibility-centred activities. The paper contributes to current debates on AI, work and higher education by integrating task-based labour market analysis with an institutional perspective on academic qualifications.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence; academic work; task-based approach; skill-based hiring; academic degrees; higher education; labour market
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