AMD CEO Lisa Su tells grads they shape the future, not AI—and the world doesn’t just need ‘people who know how to use powerful tools’

“The world does not just need people who know how to use powerful tools, it needs people who know what to use them for, people with a sense of purpose, judgment, courage,” Su recently told MIT’s class of 2026 graduates during her commencement address. 

“People who look at a hard problem and say ‘I know this is really, really important, and we can figure this out’” are the next change-makers, according to the semiconductor leader.

And Su is not alone in believing big thinkers will stay afloat in the AI revolution; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has emphasized that beyond being tech savvy, professionals need to leverage human skills like judgement and creativity to win out. And Sam Altman, the leader of OpenAI, said that talent who have good “taste” and human judgement in the AI era will make their mark. 

AMD chief tells young grads they have great responsibility in shaping future with AI

The internet transformed communication, mobile computing changed “how we live,” and cloud computing altered the way of work. But the MIT alum said that the AI era is different from all the previous technological shifts that have taken place because it will accelerate discovery in every sector—and finally get to the bottom of unsolvable problems. 

And while AI may supercharge human capability across industries, Su stressed that the technology itself won’t decide the future—people will, making it critical for young workers to learn how to use the tools responsibly.

“Now, the way to think about [AI] is it makes each of us more capable, whether you’re talking about medicine, science, energy, [or] climate,” Su said. “But let me be clear about something: Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like, the best people do.”

“For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes,” she continued. “These are actually our responsibilities, and they matter now more than ever.”

AI fluency is becoming a prerequisite—and it could mean higher salaries

Tech leaders like Huang have warned workers that AI won’t take your job, but a human with tech prowess will. And now AI fluency is increasingly becoming a prerequisite on the job hunt; in 2024, over 66,000 job postings specifically listed generative AI as a skill, a huge jump from 16,000 in 2023, according to a Lightcast report. 

Available roles that mentioned large language modeling (LLM) grew from 5,000 to 20,000, and those that referred to prompt engineering also rose from 1,400 to nearly 6,300 in the same period.

Now, employees are being asked to leverage their human judgement and insights with AI tools that are constantly changing. And Aashna Kircher, group general manager for the office of the CHRO at Workday, said it’s a tall order that’s driving a troubling disconnect. 

The leader said it typically takes 10 years to develop those types of skillsets, and professionals are being thrown into the deep end. Essentially, staffers are wielding 2025 tools while held to 2015 job structures.

“Those are super high-level skillsets,” Kircher said last year. “Right now, all the training that I see is very focused on how to use AI and not how to develop and apply discernment and judgment around the output that AI is driving. And I think that’s the disconnect for senior leaders.”

And there’s a tangible financial incentive for young grads to successfully leverage AI while pairing it with soft skills. Employees who are AI fluent are 4.5 times more likely to report higher salaries than those who are in the early stages of learning, and are four times more likely to get promoted thanks to their AI prowess, according to a 2026 Ipsos study. 

Getting comfortable with the tech is now a requirement, but the real unlock lies where budding professionals intertwine it with their own human judgement.