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Key Takeaways According to a new Gallup and Lumina Foundation survey, one in six students (16%) say they have already changed their major due to AI’s perceived impact on the job market.
Most moved into the social sciences (26%), followed by business (17%) and tech (13%).
Nearly half of students (42%) have thought at least a fair amount about switching their field of study because of AI.
Close to half of college students are thinking about changing majors due to AI — and one in six students has already gone ahead and made the switch.
A new survey from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation of 3,800 college students found that about 16% of students indicated that they had changed their major because they think AI is reducing the number of entry-level jobs on the market. Nearly half of college students, roughly 42%, have thought deeply about changing their major for the same reason.
“This is one of the clearest signals we’ve seen that students are rethinking what their futures are in response to AI,” Dr. Courtney Brown, vice president of impact and planning at Lumina Foundation, told Business Insider.
Among the 16% of students who switched majors, most moved into the social sciences (26%), followed by business (17%) and tech (13%), per the survey.
“Students are moving in both directions when it comes to tech fields,” Brown said. “Some are switching into tech because they see opportunity in AI, while others are moving away because they’re worried about disruption.”
The survey found that students in tech and vocational programs are the most open to changing their majors — about 70% say they’ve seriously thought about it. On the other hand, students studying humanities, healthcare and natural sciences were the least likely to change their majors because of AI, the survey found. Students in those disciplines also used AI the least.
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