The number of applicants to “Computer and Information Systems” programs across Ontario secondary school students has seen a sharp decrease in 2025, the lowest since 2021. According to the Ontario University Application Centre, 40,644 students applied to these programs this year, down from 55,256 in 2024. After maintaining a steady increase since 2017, this is the first year where applicant numbers decreased from the previous year.
AI tools like ChatGPT have become increasingly widespread in recent years. Completing an email, searching up a fact, summarizing information or even (perhaps riskily) finishing an essay — the functionality of ChatGPT is limitless. They get better at solving complex problems commonly seen in math and computer science and keep improving over time. “I feel like every single day, I wake up and look online and AI is significantly better than it was yesterday,” says Hy Lac Nguyen, a second year computer science student.
So, the natural question is, do we still need CS students when we have AI?
Well… not so fast. AI is supposed to be a helpful tool that aids in our work. AI is not supposed to do the work for us.
In the same interview with Nguyen, we learn that he’s in our university’s AI club, WatAI. His team’s job is to focus on AI applications to oil drilling. They take data collected by sensors on the oil drills, like drill pressure, then analyze the data with AI to predict if the values are within normal range or not, in order to avoid danger.
We note the difference between AI itself being the product of work and work that is assisted by AI. In either case, we are facing rapid changes in how work is done. According to various sources such as data from McKinsey Global Survey, IBM and Forbes, the percentage of companies that use AI in at least one business function was stable around 50 per cent from 2018 to 2023, but increased to 72 per cent and 78 per cent in 2024 and 2025 respectively. “With AI, a lot of people who don’t really know CS can kind of get by with just asking ChatGPT everything. It definitely makes finding jobs a lot harder. I find that most of my friends now, their bosses kind of force them to use AI,” said Nguyen, reflecting how widespread AI usage is in the workforce.
However, there are some things that can’t be replaced by AI. As the joke usually goes, “For AI programming to replace human programmers, users will have to communicate exactly what their needs are. Our jobs are safe.” Humans will know what problems they are facing, raise the questions based on their needs and use AI to solve them. Then, students from programs like math and computer science can apply their advantage in logical thinking and knowledge in their field and solve problems efficiently with AI.
But just like how the ability to Google things doesn’t invalidate computer science degrees, neither does asking ChatGPT to write you a sorting algorithm or using Microsoft Copilot to complete a data structure. In fact, an anonymous fourth year CS student says “ChatGPT is better than Google sometimes.” It is not the ability to copy code from ChatGPT (or formerly, Google) that earns people their wage, it’s their ability to know what code to copy, and how to fix it if it’s broken.
Microsoft Build 2025 showcased a vision of the future where AI agents perform tasks and make decisions on behalf of users and organizations. Tools like Copilot Studio, used by 230,000 organizations, are leading this shift. Students from math or computer science will have the skills required to operate with these AI agents. “I’m surprised that you never used ChatGPT. The future is now,” the anonymous CS student said.
AI isn’t replacing CS students. CS students with AI are replacing CS students without.
