AI Pushing Students to Consider Changing Majors, Data Shows

Nearly half of college students have considered changing their major over concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market, new data shows.

In the three-plus years since generative AI went mainstream, college students have been inundated with gloomy predictions and reports that the technology will soon replace large swaths of entry-level white-collar jobs. And for some industries, it’s already starting: Between 2022 and 2025, early-career workers in AI-exposed occupations—such as software development and clerical work—experienced 16 percent relative employment declines, while employment for more experienced workers remained stable.

Such AI-related disruptions are causing many college students to second-guess their career plans, according to a new survey of 3,801 students that Gallup and the Lumina Foundation published Thursday. It found that 47 percent of students have thought about switching their major either “a great deal” (14 percent) or “a fair amount” (33 percent) amid the rise of AI.

Those considerations were more prominent depending on certain factors, including gender, major and institution type.

Sixty percent of male students contemplated a major change compared to 38 percent of female students. At the same time, 56 percent of students enrolled in an associate degree program thought “a great deal” or a “fair amount” about switching their major, compared to 42 percent of bachelor’s degree seekers. Broken down by major, students pursuing technology degrees were most likely to consider a change, with 70 percent reporting that they’d given it serious thought. More than half of students pursuing vocational degrees, as well as degrees in humanities, engineering and business, had also considered a change.

Meanwhile, students studying health care and natural sciences were the least likely (both 34 percent) to seriously consider changing their major because of AI.

For 16 percent of students, those worries were enough to prompt them to actually change their major.

According to the report, that decision was especially common among men (21 percent) and students pursuing an associate degree (19 percent). Notably, students who had already switched majors in response to AI were most likely to be enrolled in vocational (26 percent) and technology programs (25 percent).

“Combined with the finding that students who are currently enrolled in those programs are also among the most likely to say they are considering changing their major—but have not yet done so—this suggests that vocational and technology programs may be the disciplines most likely to be impacted by artificial intelligence, both positively and negatively,” the report says.