As the coding boom fades, computer science grads focus on AI skills in choppy job market

Computer science student Jack Zemke was getting nowhere despite sending out hundreds of job applications that mostly disappeared into the void – ignored.

With his graduation from Tulane University just days away, he was considering moving back in with his parents when he got a break thanks to a group project he had worked on involving an AI-powered search tool. As he touted it at an engineering conference, an employee at a civil engineering firm approached.

“We’re not like the most on top of trends, but we know that AI is becoming a big thing,” he recalled the man saying. “We need somebody to be essentially an evangelist.”