From Gen Z to baby boomers, workers across industries are looking for ways to future-proof their careers as artificial intelligence threatens to upend the job market. Palantir CEO Alex Karp offers a very simple view of who will emerge victorious.
“There are basically two ways to know if you have a future,” the 59-year-old billionaire said. TBPN in March. “First, you have professional training. Or second, you are neurodivergent.”
Karp’s first category reflects a growing consensus: Professionals in skilled trades, from electricians to plumbers, are difficult to automate and are increasingly in demand as big tech companies build huge data centers and the United States faces labor shortages.
The second category is more personal. Karp has long spoken about dyslexia, a learning disorder that can affect reading, writing and processing information. More broadly, neurodivergence can include conditions such as ADHD and autism.
For Karp, this cognitive difference can be an advantage in an AI-driven world, less because of the diagnosis itself than because of the mindset it can foster. Success, he argued, will favor people who think differently and take risks, or, in his words, who will be “more artists, will look at things from a different perspective, will be able to build something unique.”
A fifth of sales organizations within Fortune 500 companies are expected to actively recruit neurodivergent talent to improve their sales performance by 2027, according to a Gartner study.
As Alex Karp warns that AI will eliminate jobs, Palantir bets on neurodivergent talent and high school graduates
While being neurodivergent is not a requirement to land a job at Palantir, the company has made it clear that it views these candidates as a strategic advantage.
It offers a dedicated “neurodivergent fellowship,” aimed at recruiting talent likely to think differently from traditional hires.
“Neurodivergent individuals will play a disproportionate role in shaping the future of America and the West,” the job posting states. “They see the performative ideologies of the past and perceive the beauty of the world that still exists, that technology and art can reveal.”
This emphasis reflects Karp’s broader skepticism of traditional career paths. Although he holds three degrees – including a JD from Stanford and a PhD in philosophy from Goethe University in Germany – Karp has been outspoken about the limits of higher education in an AI-driven economy.
“(AI) will destroy jobs in the humanities,” Karp said at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in early 2026. “You went to an elite school and you studied philosophy — I’ll use myself as an example — I hope you have another skill, that one will be hard to market.”
Palantir also launched a separate program, the Meritocracy Fellowship, designed specifically for high school graduates not enrolled in college. The program’s first cohort required Ivy League-level test scores to qualify and attracted more than 500 applicants. The 22 admitted students were a mix of those who felt that attending college was uncompelling or who did not get into their dream school, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The fellowship’s fall 2026 cohort offered participants $5,400 per month as a stipend and introduced themselves with a clear message: “Avoid debt. Reclaim years of your life. Get the Palantir degree.” Top performers may even receive full-time offers at the company.
Entry-level positions for Gen Z are drying up, but not everyone has dropped out of college
As traditional entry-level positions dry up for Gen Z graduates, many young people are coming to the same conclusion as Karp: A college degree alone is no longer a guaranteed path to success.
Still, some tech leaders say higher education is far from obsolete and that the liberal arts in particular could become more valuable in the age of AI. Jaime Teevan, Microsoft’s chief scientist, believes the next generation will benefit from studying disciplines that focus on how to think, not just what to do.
“Metacognitive skills will be very important: flexibility, adaptability, experimentation, critical thinking, ability to question things. Developing critical thinking skills requires friction, doing difficult things, thinking deeply,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “For that, a traditional liberal arts education is really important. »
Unlike Karp, Daniela Amodei, co-founder of AI company Anthropic, said the study of humanities would be “more important than ever.”
“The things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important,” she said. ABC News in February. “And what I mean by that is, when we’re looking to hire people at Anthropic today, we’re looking for people who are great communicators, who have great EQ and people skills, who are kind, compassionate and curious and who want to help others.”
A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on March 24, 2026.
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