As the era of artificial intelligence unfolds, a noticeable shift is occurring in universities. Numerous institutions are restructuring or downsizing their humanities departments, claiming that humanities are less relevant to current industry demands and the job market. Students are also avoiding humanities majors, convinced that such majors will not be helpful in their future employment. As a result, important academic values that universities once upheld, such as critical thinking, fundamental questions about human life and society, and the cultivation of independent thinkers, are fading away. These changes raise troubling questions and are not simply a matter of curriculum reform or departmental restructuring. They represent a structural crisis that threatens the very essence of the university and its role in human education. Recently, universities across the country have reorganized departments related to humanities. Gachon University has restructured its College of Humanities into the College of AI and Humanities, blurring the distinct identity of humanities departments. Duksung Women’s University stopped admitting new students to its French and German language departments in 2025. Also, Korea University has replaced its foundational liberal arts course “Freedom, Justice, and Truth” with “Exploration of the Academic World” and replaced humanities courses with new practical subjects such as “Data Science and Artificial Intelligence”. These changes are all justified under the banner of responding to the AI era, industry relevance, and practicality, showing that universities are beginning to prioritize utility over academic integrity. Furthermore, many students nowadays believe that humanities are unhelpful for employment. Many humanities students double major in business or engineering and even transfer to other departments. This reflects the real difficulties that humanities graduates face in the job market. Every year, the employment rate of humanities graduates falls behind that of STEM majors, and society thinks of humanities as impractical and useless. Consequently, humanities are increasingly being left behind, and universities respond to these trends by continuing to cut humanities education. However, humanities shouldn’t be assessed only by their immediate utility or employment outcomes. Humanities reflect on the essence of human beings by asking fundamental questions about existence, reason, and the meaning of life. Through this process, we develop the ability to think critically and judge independently. In an era where overwhelming amounts of information are produced, the capacity to independently interpret and assess that information is more crucial than ever. Such ability is essential to sustaining human society and is a unique human capability that has been created through the study of humanities. In an age where AI imitates human thinking, the role of the humanities becomes even more important. Although AI can analyze data and make predictions, it cannot understand the ethical meaning of its actions or decide how technology should influence society. The responsibility to set ethical standards and determine the direction of technological development ultimately is up to humans. Humanities play a central role in ethical thinking, such as free will, dignity, and justice, which cannot be done by AI, and serve as an essential compass in the technological age. Restoring the meaning of the humanities in universities is not simply about saving a few departments, it is about reclaiming the meaning of the university itself. The university is not merely a place for career preparation, it is a place for intellectual growth and a place to educate students to become thinking humans. However, an education without the humanities ultimately produces humans who do not think and a society that does not question. Universities must now consider what it means to protect the essence of our humanity and strive to reflect that concern in our education systems. If universities turn away from the humanities, students will lose the opportunity to become individuals who question, reflect, and truly think.