What AI Cannot Learn: Life Experience, Judgment, Self-Knowledge

More than one hundred families joined our webinar "Future Skills & Self-Determination" yesterday evening to explore what young people need to meet the professional challenges ahead.

Our guests Ragnhild Struss (founder, Struss & Claussen Career Consultancy) and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (Chair of Strategy and Organisation, TU Munich) spent 75 minutes approaching the same conclusion from two different angles.

The central question: if knowledge is accessible everywhere, what still matters?

Prof. Dr. Welpe spoke of "tacit knowledge" – everything that cannot be found in books: life experience, networks across disciplines, the capacity for judgment. This is precisely what AI models lack as training data, and it will therefore grow in importance. In future, skills will matter more than credentials, she argued: "You can lead a good life without a degree. But without skills, you will struggle."

Her advice: choose universities that actively foster social interaction. She counts among these the Anglo-Saxon institutions such as Cambridge with its colleges and MIT with over 550 student clubs, but also WHU, CODE Berlin, ETH and TUM closer to home.

Ragnhild Struss identified three core skills: self-efficacy, communication and critical thinking. Can you explain what drives you? How you have dealt with setbacks? These are the questions that will count in future job interviews.

Her line that stayed with the audience: "Everyone already has innate abilities that can be developed." The task is to recognise them and then discover "where can I best contribute my potential?"

Both speakers see AI literacy as indispensable. The US is already ahead, treating tool competency as a given, while Germany is still debating Copilot licences. Ragnhild Struss pointed to the "seniority gap" dilemma: if entry-level jobs disappear, how will young people build the necessary experience? Companies must take greater responsibility for passing on experience ("embodied cognition").

Both speakers agreed: the path leads from the inside out. Not everyone needs to go to Cambridge at 17. Those who know themselves and build self-efficacy can do so anywhere. That takes the pressure off.

A warning also emerged: an MIT study shows that after just three months of AI use, cognitive ability measurably declines. For Prof. Welpe, this is more serious than social media.

Our warmest thanks to Ragnhild Struss and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe for this rich and thought-provoking evening.

The webinar recording is available here.