Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt Booed by University of Arizona Graduates After Telling Them ‘AI Will Touch Every Profession, Every Person’

The Class of 2026 is not just worried about artificial intelligence (AI). Some graduates are booing it from their seats at commencement.

At the University of Arizona, former Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) CEO Eric Schmidt told about 10,000 graduates that “AI would touch every profession,every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship.” As the boos built from the crowd, Schmidt acknowledged the fear: graduates worry "the jobs are evaporating" and “the future has already been written.”

For students and parents who just spent years and thousands of dollars chasing a first real job, AI rhetoric like this can feel as though someone is announcing that the starting line has moved. And coming from someone whose company has been at the forefront of those displacements, it can seem a bit tone-deaf.

One University of Arizona graduate, Olivia Malone, told AP that the speech was "incredibly disrespectful to students." Similar reactions surfaced at other commencements when speakers tried to frame AI as a tool or the next industrial revolution.

The backlash is not happening in a vacuum. Monster's 2026 Graduate AI Readiness Report found that 89% of graduates are concerned AI or automation could replace entry-level roles, up from 64% in 2025. Monster also found that 58% feel anxious about using AI tools in future roles, while only 36% believe college is preparing them to use AI professionally.

That is the emotional core of the story: young workers are being told that AI fluency matters, but many say their classrooms have not clearly prepared them for the AI-shaped workplace they are about to enter. Goldman Sachs (GS) estimates that roughly 11,000 jobs per month are currently being eliminated due to AI and overwhelmingly affecting entry-level jobs and college graduates.

And while AI may be the loudest fear, it is not the only pressure on new graduates. Beneath the headlines, there’s a messier job-market reality. Unemployment among college graduates aged 22 to 27 reached 5.8% last year, and the New York Fed found that remote work accounted for nearly two-thirds of the post-pandemic rise in young-grad unemployment.

That remote-work twist matters because many entry-level jobs used to function similarly to apprenticeships. New workers learned by sitting near managers, absorbing office norms, asking quick questions, and getting informal feedback. If more training happens through screens, employers may have less incentive to hire people who need that first layer of guidance.

Even worse: Employers still want degrees, communication, judgment and critical thinking, but they increasingly want evidence that a candidate has already practiced those skills in a real workplace. But with fewer and fewer entry-level jobs available, it’s a constant chicken-and-egg problem.

For colleges, the pressure is just as clear. If entry-level roles are asking for more workplace readiness on day one, transcripts alone may not be enough. Students need chances to build real work experience before they cross the stage.

For parents, the big question around attending a four-year university is changing, too. It is no longer only whether a degree is worth it. It is whether the degree comes with enough internships, applied projects, and career coaching to help a graduate compete when the first job increasingly expects proof of experience.