Reed Hastings says AI will drive return to humanities education and shift focus to emotional skills

Reed Hastings, Netflix cofounder and board chairman, stated on the Possible podcast that today's AI revolution may transform education by shifting emphasis from STEM back toward humanities and understanding of history and literature. He said if he had a 3-year-old today, he would focus on developing emotional skills.

Hastings donated $50 million to Bowdoin College last year to establish the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity, which will fund the hiring of 10 new faculty members and research on AI's impact on society.

The share of tech job postings open to people with two to four years' experience dropped to 40% in mid-2025 from 46% in mid-2022, according to Indeed data. Despite this shift, Hastings expressed skepticism that AI will entirely replace human software engineers, saying there will be many opportunities for more software roles.