What good is an arts degree in the age of AI?
If Ireland is to reach Government ambitions with respect to becoming a global lead in responsible AI, digital ethics, creative industries and democratic resilience, we cannot afford to sideline the arts. File picture
Recent coverage of a proposed change to the traditional arts degree at University of Galway has brought the value of such a degree into question.
While I refute the claim by some that a traditional arts degree has had its day —an arts degree is not just for teachers or civil servants — there is a need to reframe the inherent value of an arts degree, particularly in the age of AI.
CAO data shows that student demand for arts degrees remains high. In the 2025 cycle, Arts recorded 41,061 Level‑8 'mentions' and 7,081 CAO first preferences. The picture is much the same inside Irish Higher Education Institutions.
Total enrolments on arts programmes remain high with data from 2024/25 suggesting a total intake of 278,880 students to arts-related programmes.
For the past decade, a narrative persists that elevates the professional and personal benefits of STEM while dismissing the arts.
In the UK, this has gained such prominence that it is now becoming a hard-lined policy, evidenced in the closure of whole departments and subjects in key universities. Let's not let that happen here, for the consequences are far beyond what we can imagine.
Let's reframe the narrative and look at the value of graduates of arts degrees both to the Irish economy and the manner in which key competencies learned via an arts degree can impact on the reality of the AI revolution currently reshaping society.
Globally, AI adoption has surged. Research suggests that Ireland's economy is among the most AI‑intensive in Europe, largely because of the volume of multinational tech companies here.
While these companies increasingly rely on AI for key tasks — including customer operations, content moderation, data governance, compliance, and public‑facing decision systems — it is not these skills alone that are foregrounded in their job adverts.
In fact, the competencies employers expect to grow the most by 2030 are not just the technical skills to advance AI, but the human-centred skills that help us make sense of such advances.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2025, the fastest‑rising core skills in the global marketplace include analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience and leadership; all of which continue to be the bedrock of an arts education.
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Stanford’s AI Index 2025 shows that demand for generative AI skills has quadrupled in job postings, but crucially, coupled with similar increases in the need for workers who can interpret complex information, question assumptions and judge the ethical implications of AI.
This in fact indicates that AI stands to make expertise in the arts and humanities even more valuable than they already are.
AI is creating an increased demand for graduates from the arts and humanities who bring key skills in analytical thinking, creative thinking, multilingualism and intercultural competence, resilience and leadership to the workplace.
From my own disciplinary perspective, we argue that AI amplifies human capability, but only for those who understand the linguistic and cultural dimensions necessary to use it strategically.
To downgrade the value of arts in the minds of Irish people serves only to devalue these skills and produce a robotic workplace and society.
In Ireland’s technology‑rich economy, the biggest risks AI poses are not technical but human.
Without arts graduates, who will be educated to adjudicate bias, fairness, transparency, trust, and data ethics?
Whose narrative would prevail without these checks and what would be the societal impact?
The work of arts graduates is all around us In Ireland; arts graduates work across education, the civil service, journalism, NGOs, creative industries, cultural heritage, diplomacy, tech compliance, content moderation, regulation, ethics advisory roles, healthcare communication and beyond.
These are not declining sectors.
If Ireland wants responsible AI, we need graduates who understand people, cultures, and stories as much as they understand prompts and algorithms.
The arts cannot rely on tradition alone. Arts educators are adapting our teaching to include digital literacy, ethical reasoning, intercultural fluency, interdisciplinary collaboration and critical analysis in our programmes.
We are under no illusion that future-proofing an arts degree means providing transferable competencies that directly address intersections with AI and society.
An arts education can and does provide the necessary upskilling of our workforce in core competencies such as ethics, governance, trust, creativity, narrative framing and innovation.
At University of Limerick, the transferrable skills unit embedded in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science addresses this need, as will a new degree in BA Arts portfolio which focuses on professional pathways.
Ireland’s global reputation has never rested on technical excellence alone but on the unique set of human skills prioritised here.
We are renowned for our creativity, storytelling, diplomacy, intercultural fluency and the unique Irish flavour we bring to understanding the work around us.
If Ireland is to reach Government ambitions with respect to becoming a global lead in responsible AI, digital ethics, creative industries and democratic resilience, we cannot afford to sideline the arts.
In fact, we need arts graduates now more than ever. We need more graduates who can think critically, write persuasively, judge ethically, interpret language and culture and co-design human‑centred solutions.
AI is changing how we work and live. It doesn't have to change who we are. Our excellence in arts education is Ireland’s strategic advantage.
- Professor Máiréad Moriarty, School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, University of Limerick
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