In the Age of AI, Skills Need Stronger Proof
Imagine two candidates applying for their first professional role.
Both submit polished resumes. Both provide thoughtful answers during virtual interviews. Both share work samples that appear to demonstrate the skills an employer needs.
But how does that employer know what each candidate can actually do?
Artificial intelligence has made it easier for people to develop ideas, improve their work and communicate their capabilities. It has also made familiar hiring signals harder to interpret. This creates a challenge for employers and an opportunity for higher education to improve how people demonstrate what they know and can do.
WGU’s second annual Workforce Decoded Report, based on a national survey of 3,128 U.S. hiring professionals, provides a clearer picture of how employers are navigating this change.
Sixty percent say AI has made candidates’ real skills harder to evaluate. Nearly one in five cite difficulty confirming whether they are interviewing a person or AI as a top challenge. The share still figuring out how to evaluate AI skills effectively doubled from 16% in 2025 to 32% this year.
AI is changing more than work. It is changing how employers identify and evaluate talent.
When Employers Cannot Verify Skills, Opportunity Narrows
Employers who struggle most to evaluate candidates’ skills are also more likely to report pulling back from entry-level hiring.
Among employers who say AI has made skills harder to evaluate, 54% report that AI has reduced entry-level hiring at their organization. That compares with 20% among employers who do not report greater evaluation difficulty.
The survey does not establish that one caused the other. But it shows that concerns about skills verification and reduced entry-level hiring are concentrated among the same employers. That matters because entry-level roles give people opportunities to apply what they have learned, build experience and begin pathways to long-term economic mobility.
If employers lose confidence in the signals candidates provide, people seeking their first foothold in the workforce may have fewer opportunities to prove themselves.
Higher education institutions can help close that confidence gap by asking more demanding questions of themselves. Are our programs aligned with meaningful opportunities? Can learners explain what they have learned in ways employers understand? Do our credentials signal real capability? Are we creating pathways for people who already have substantial knowledge and experience? Are we helping learners build not only job-ready skills, but career resilience?
Employers Want Multiple Signals of Readiness
The findings challenge the idea that employers are choosing between degrees and skills.
Seventy-three percent consider college degrees important, up from 68% in 2025. Ninety-one percent view certificates as valuable indicators of skills, up from 86%. At the same time, 42% plan to increase their focus on skills over degrees, while 76% say work experience is equal to or more valuable than a degree.
Employers increasingly want a combination of trusted credentials, demonstrated skills and practical experience.
For higher education, this means learning cannot remain hidden inside a transcript or become visible only at graduation. Students should understand the skills they are developing, connect those skills to workforce needs and communicate them clearly to employers. This is why WGU continues investing in competency-based education, skills visibility and partnerships that connect learning with workforce opportunity.
Through partnerships with major employers such as Amazon and AT&T, WGU helps working adults access education that supports their personal and professional growth. WGU’s work with AT&T’s HACEMOS employee group, for example, has supported scholarships, employee engagement and educational opportunities for its members and their communities. Partnerships like these also help employers develop needed capabilities within their existing workforce rather than relying solely on external hiring.
That connection is especially important because 42% of employers expect to close their skills gaps primarily by upskilling current employees, nearly twice the 22% planning to rely mainly on new hires.
A Better System for Connecting Talent With Opportunity
Practical experience remains an essential part of that system. Thirty-eight percent of employers say internships, apprenticeships or project-based work provide the most effective path from education into employment.
AI is not diminishing the importance of education, skills or experience. It is increasing the value of credible evidence that brings them together.
Higher education and employers have an opportunity to build a better system of proof: credentials that communicate clear value, assessments that verify capability and practical experiences that show how people think, adapt and use AI responsibly.
The most important outcome will be greater confidence.
Employers will have greater confidence in the people they hire. Learners will have greater confidence in their capabilities. More people will be able to see where their education can take them and demonstrate that they are ready for the opportunity ahead. Our responsibility is to make that talent visible when it matters most.
Read WGU’s announcement and explore the complete 2026 Workforce Decoded Report.
