Six in 10 hiring professionals say artificial intelligence has made it harder to tell what job candidates can actually do, according to the second annual Workforce Decoded report from Western Governors University (WGU), released September 30, 2026. The same survey found employers placing more value on both degrees and certificates than a year earlier. For faculty, credential designers and hiring managers following AI in education and work, the report offers a year-over-year look at how employers read credentials as AI tools spread through hiring.

About the survey

Research firm Centiment conducted the survey for WGU from June 24 to July 7, 2026, among 3,128 U.S.-based respondents directly involved in hiring. WGU compares the results with its inaugural edition, which Centiment fielded from September 30 to October 15, 2025, among 3,147 respondents from organizations of different sizes, industries and regions, using comparable questions. WGU announced the first edition on December 9, 2025, so the two surveys were taken about nine months apart.

AI and the evaluation problem

  • 60 percent of employers say AI makes it harder to evaluate a candidate's real skills.
  • Nearly one in five name confirming that they are interviewing a person, not an AI, among their top challenges.
  • 32 percent say they are still working out how to evaluate AI skills effectively, double the 16 percent who said so in 2025.

The report connects the evaluation problem to entry-level hiring. Among employers who say AI has made skills harder to assess, 54 percent report that AI has reduced entry-level hiring at their organization. Among employers who do not report that difficulty, 20 percent say the same. The comparison shows that the two answers tend to go together; a survey of this kind does not establish that one causes the other.

The first edition already showed employers testing for AI ability. In 2025, half of respondents said they assess candidates' AI fluency, and 52 percent said they gauge AI competency through technical or skills-based assessments, on-the-job evaluations or both.

Degrees and certificates both gained ground

Employer regard for formal credentials rose rather than fell. In 2026, 73 percent called college degrees important, up from 68 percent in 2025, and 91 percent said certificates are valuable indicators of skills, up from 86 percent. At the same time, 42 percent said they plan to put more focus on skills than on degrees. All three figures come from the same respondents, so a single employer can value degrees more, value certificates more and still plan to weigh demonstrated skills more heavily.

The 2025 edition offers more context on how employers viewed higher education a year earlier. In that survey, 78 percent said work experience is equal to or more valuable than a degree, and 37 percent said colleges and universities are preparing students with the skills they need to succeed at work.

Where employers plan to close skills gaps

More employers expect to build skills inside the organization than to hire for them. Forty-two percent said they will close skills gaps mainly by upskilling current employees, nearly twice the 22 percent who plan to rely mainly on new hires. Reported investments include:

  • leadership development (59 percent);
  • apprenticeships, internships or other work-based learning (53 percent);
  • tuition assistance, degrees or professional credentials (39 percent).

Critical thinking was the skills gap employers cited most often, followed by effective use of AI tools and verbal communication. Asked about recent graduates, 38 percent of employers named internships, apprenticeships or project-based work as the most effective route into employment.

What employers tell workers concerned about AI

Asked what workers worried about AI should do, 38 percent of employers recommended learning to work alongside AI and 31 percent recommended strengthening skills that are distinctly human. WGU president Scott Pulsipher said in the release that AI is changing how employers find and assess talent, and he called for colleges and employers to build a better system for proving what people can do.

The figures reflect what hiring professionals report, not what their organizations measured, and the 2026 release does not report results by industry, company size or occupation. Readers tracking AI in education and work can set the 2026 numbers beside WGU's 2025 edition, which asked comparable questions of a similar number of hiring professionals.

Sources