in addition to all of the above, there are some jobs which set you up as an authority in your field, at least compared to someone who doesn't have the education or experience.
most often, these jobs require licensure and/or involvement in a professional organisation, like doctors, lawyers, accountants and others. that license, and often letters after your name, signify to the public that you've got the required knowledge and experience to present yourself as an authority on a topic.
so, a cardiologist is presenting themselves as an authority on medical matters relating to the heart. a patent attorney is presenting themselves as an authority on a specific area of intellectual property law. a cpa is presenting themselves as an authority on certain financial matters, usually accounting, auditing, and/or taxation.
this is backed up by the license given by the licensing group where a person lives. essentially, your state, province, country, whoever is issuing the license is saying 'we've vetted this person's credentials and they're someone whose advice you can trust.'
if you're going through school and getting by with consulting ai constantly, how can i, as a person with no knowledge or experience in the field, possibly trust you to advise me? how will i know if you're telling me something real or something hallucinated by ai? how will i even know you did it in the first place? maybe your answer is a gleeful, 'you won't.'
you're right, i won't. you'll keep being right up until the moment my house falls down because you didn't bother to do the thinking in your architectural courses, or the math equations in your construction degree, and let ai pass the class for you.
if you do not gain the knowledge yourself, your authority will fail your clients. and when that happens—and if you're relying on ai for schoolwork, it will happen—they'll be in a position to sue you. they will quite possibly be successful. and there goes your professional reputation. it doesn't seem like a big deal, but losing your license or certification, or having it suspended or any other disciplinary action is often a matter of public record, because people who seek out advice from licensed professionals generally have the right to know the character of the professional they're using. so even one instance of a poor outcome, depending on how catastrophic, could end an entire career path. a lot of this stuff isn't just 'oh, i'll pick it up on the job,' because the degree teaches you the thinking framework that your colleagues will use. and if you don't do the work, you can't build the frame.
all that time you spent not working towards the knowledge in school will come back to bite you. that is what character is for.