AMD CEO Lisa Su's Message to Graduates: Focus on Purpose, Judgment, and Problem-Solving in AI Era

AMD CEO Lisa Su has a career message for graduates entering an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven job market. The chief executive of the US-based chip company has asked graduates to focus on purpose, judgment and problem-solving rather than simply learning how to use artificial intelligence tools.

Speaking at MIT's commencement ceremony for the Class of 2026, Su said employers and society need people who can decide how AI should be applied, not just individuals who know how to operate the technology. According to a report by Fortune, Su told graduates: “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. 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.

Her comments come as AI skills become increasingly common requirements in job postings and companies adopt generative AI tools across departments.

AMD CEO Lisa Su says AI cannot replace human judgment

During her address, Su described AI as a technology that could accelerate progress across industries, including healthcare, science, energy, and climate research. However, she argued that AI alone cannot determine which challenges deserve attention or take responsibility for decisions and outcomes.

“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. 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. These are actually our responsibilities, and they matter now more than ever,” Su explained.

Su, who earned degrees from MIT before building a career in the semiconductor industry, said the AI era differs from previous technological shifts because of its potential to accelerate discovery across multiple fields simultaneously. Her views echo those of other technology executives who have argued that human judgment and creativity will remain important as AI capabilities advance. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said professionals need to combine technical knowledge with human skills such as judgment and creativity. Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has highlighted the importance of "taste" and human decision-making in an AI-driven workplace.

The message comes as AI-related skills become increasingly sought after by employers. According to data from labour market analytics firm Lightcast, more than 66,000 job postings in 2024 specifically mentioned generative AI skills, up from around 16,000 the previous year. Job listings referencing large language models grew from 5,000 to 20,000 over the same period, while postings mentioning prompt engineering increased from 1,400 to nearly 6,300.