Nearly Half of College Students Rethink Majors as AI Reshapes Entry-Level Job Market

AI Is Routine for College Students, Despite Campus Limits

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- New research from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education study finds that more than half (57%) of U.S. college students are using artificial intelligence in their coursework at least weekly, including about one in five who say they use it daily. Male students report more frequent AI use than female students, particularly in the case of daily use (27% vs. 17%). By major, students in business, technology and engineering programs are the most frequent AI users compared with those in other fields of study. Rates of AI use are similar among students pursuing associate and bachelor's degrees. These results are from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education study, conducted via web Oct. 2-31, 2025. The survey is based on 1,433 U.S. students, aged 18 to 59, who are pursuing an associate degree and 2,368 students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Respondents were recruited from an opt-in online panel. Widespread use of AI among college students occurs even as many report restrictions on its use in the classroom. More than half of currently enrolled students say their school discourages the use of AI (42%) or prohibits it altogether (11%), while about four in 10 say students are encouraged to use AI, either freely (7%) or with limits (35%). Reported policies are largely consistent across associate and bachelor's degree programs. Majorities of students in technology, vocational and business programs say their schools encourage AI use. Helping them understand complex material is the most important reason college students cite for using AI in their coursework. Nearly nine in 10 students who use AI at least monthly say this is an important reason, including 46% who rate it as extremely important. Saving time on assignments and getting better grades follow closely as key motivations, with large majorities also describing these as important reasons for using AI. Among students who use AI infrequently or not at all, ethical concerns are the most commonly cited reason for avoiding it, followed by school policies that discourage or prohibit AI use. Concerns about privacy or safety are also frequently mentioned, while a lack of familiarity with how to use AI is the least-cited barrier. The most common uses of AI focus on academic support and efficiency. Sixty-four percent say they use AI daily or weekly to get help with coursework they do not understand, and 60% report using it this often to check answers on homework or classroom assignments. More than half say they frequently use AI to edit or improve their writing (54%) or to summarize lectures or notes (54%), while 49% use it to generate new ideas, such as paper topics. Smaller shares report using AI daily or weekly for doing research for papers (45%), creating images and visualizations (37%), writing papers (36%) or getting career advice (35%). Taken together, the findings suggest that AI is already a routine part of college students' academic work, even as institutional guidance has not fully caught up. A majority of students use AI at least weekly, with similar adoption across two- and four-year programs and higher usage among men and students in business, technology and engineering fields. Yet about half of students say their schools discourage or prohibit AI use, pointing to a gap between how students are using these tools and how institutions are formally addressing them. Students expect their institutions to prepare them for the world of work upon graduation, which will inevitably include AI, given its proliferation. Schools that fail to provide those experiences will likely produce graduates who are behind in their development of this increasingly relevant skill. Further, the results underscore the importance of clearly defined, consistently communicated AI policies and instructional practices that reflect how students are already engaging with the technology for learning, efficiency and academic support.

College Students Weigh AI's Impact on Majors and Careers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Artificial intelligence is shaping how many college students think about their academic paths. Forty-two percent of bachelor's degree students say AI has caused them to give at least a fair amount of thought to changing their major, including 13% who say they have thought about it a great deal. Even more associate degree students, 56%, say AI has prompted them to rethink their field of study at least a fair amount, including 15% who say a great deal. These results are from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education Study, conducted via web Oct. 2-31, 2025, among U.S. college students aged 18 to 59. The survey is based on 1,433 students pursuing an associate degree and 2,368 students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Respondents were recruited from an opt-in online panel. The survey also finds that a significant minority of currently enrolled students (16%) report having already changed their major or field of study because of AI's potential impact. Associate degree students are slightly more likely than bachelor's degree students to say they have done so (19% vs. 13%, respectively). Men are also more likely than women to report changing majors because of AI (21% vs. 12%). Beyond shaping decisions about fields of study, artificial intelligence is also influencing some students' decision to enroll in higher education in the first place. While traditional motivations such as gaining skills, higher pay and career fulfillment remain far more common, about one in seven bachelor's degree students (14%) and associate degree students (13%) each say preparing for AI and other technological advances is an important reason they enrolled. Similar shares cite concern about AI's impact on the job market (12% in both groups), indicating that AI is already part of how many students evaluate the role of postsecondary education in a changing labor market. Artificial intelligence is not yet the primary driver of students' academic and enrollment decisions, but its influence is significant given how quickly the technology has entered the labor market. Many students are already factoring AI's impact into decisions about majors, and some cite it as a reason for enrolling in college. For higher education leaders and policymakers, these findings highlight growing student attention to how well degrees align with an AI-shaped economy. Ensuring that programs clearly connect learning outcomes to evolving workforce needs and helping students understand how AI skills translate into careers will be critical as the demand for future-ready credentials continues to grow.

Almost half of college students have considered changing majors due to potential AI impact: Polling

A poll released Thursday found almost half of college students have considered switching majors due to AI as its impact on the workforce grows. The Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education survey found 47 percent of all currently enrolled college students have thought about switching majors "a great deal" or a "fair amount" due to AI. Men and those going for associate degrees were more likely to say they have thought about switching majors due to AI. Around 16 percent of students did switch fields due to AI, with the most popular majors reporting this change including vocational and technology work, while those in health care or natural sciences were the least likely to say they switched. While AI has caused some students to reconsider their field of study, it has also changed their college experience in how they interact with coursework. The poll found 57 percent of students say they use AI weekly for their coursework, and one in five use it daily. Men are more likely than women to use AI for school, as well as business, technology and engineering majors using it more than humanities and health care. The large use of AI for coursework comes as 42 percent say their school discourages its use and 11 percent say it is prohibited altogether. The students report using AI particularly to help understand complex material and to save time doing tasks, according to the poll. For students who report not using AI, a vast majority say it is unethical, and a majority cite their school ban on AI and privacy concerns as reasons they don't use the technology for coursework.

A Growing Number of College Students Are Switching Majors -- Here's What's Behind It

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. "I don't think students are seeing that AI is going to replace those," Brown said. AI's effect on entry-level jobs A 2024 Harvard University study tracking 62 million workers across 285,000 U.S. companies found that entry-level positions were "shrinking" at companies integrating AI since 2023. The researchers wrote that AI is "eroding the 'bottom rungs' of career ladders" with its ability to automate the "intellectually mundane tasks" that typically go to junior employees. A separate Stanford University analysis from October reinforced this trend. The survey found that entry-level hiring declined 13% in AI-exposed jobs such as software development, customer service and clerical work. The results indicated that AI is beginning to have a "significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers." Industry leaders have sounded the alarm about AI's ability to replace entry-level workers in a variety of industries. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI giant Anthropic, said last year that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs by 2030 and cause unemployment to rise to 20%. Meanwhile, Victor Lazarte, general partner at venture capital firm Benchmark, said last year that AI is "fully replacing people" and that lawyers and recruiters especially should be wary of the technology as it encroaches on their work. Another report finds increased interest in AI In technical fields, students seem to be steering away from majors that AI could easily take over, according to a March report from Niche, a platform for researching and reviewing U.S. K-12 schools and colleges. Instead, students are showing more interest in areas of AI development, like software engineering and AI-focused specialties, rather than old-school programming. Allison Shrivastava, an economist at Niche and author of the report, told Business Insider that it's a good sign students interested in software development are starting to lean toward AI-related fields -- it shows they're adapting to where the tech world is headed. "That's a good response in terms of what we will need from the workforce in the future," Shrivastava told the outlet.

Amid mass layoffs, AI is making students switch careers. Top 5 fields seeing biggest shift revealed in new survey

A growing number of college students are starting to rethink what they study, and it is not happening in isolation. The shift comes at a time when artificial intelligence is changing hiring patterns and, at the same time, layoffs in parts of the tech sector have made job security feel less certain than before. A new survey conducted by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, based on responses from around 3,800 students, shows that these concerns are already influencing decisions on campus. About 16% of students said they have changed their major because of AI's potential impact on jobs. Alongside that, nearly half, 47%, said they have at least considered switching their field of study. Dr. Courtney Brown, vice president of impact and planning at Lumina Foundation, told Business Insider, "This is one of the clearest signals we've seen that students are rethinking what their futures are in response to AI." The data suggests that AI is not just a distant idea for students anymore. It is shaping how they think about careers even before they graduate. Around 42% of bachelor's degree students and 56% of associate degree students said AI has made them seriously think about changing their major. This shift is also linked to what students are seeing in the job market. In recent years, early-career roles in AI-exposed sectors like software development and clerical work have seen noticeable declines, while more experienced roles have remained relatively stable. That gap seems to be making younger students more cautious. At the same time, AI is also influencing why some students choose to go to college in the first place. Around one in seven students said preparing for AI or dealing with its impact on jobs was part of their reason for enrolling. Among students who actually switched their majors, the survey points to five key fields where most of them are landing. The numbers show a pattern, though not a uniform one. 1. Social Sciences (26%) This is the largest share. Many students appear to be moving toward areas that deal with human behavior, policy, and society, possibly seeing them as less directly replaceable by automation. 2. Business (17%) Business-related courses continue to attract students, especially as companies look for people who can work alongside AI tools rather than be replaced by them. 3. Technology (13%) Even with uncertainty, tech is still a major draw. But here, the movement is mixed -- some are entering while others are leaving. 4. Vocational and Skilled Trades (noted as a major shift area) Students in vocational programs are among the most likely to switch, and also among those most affected by AI concerns. 5. AI-Focused and Software Engineering Paths (emerging trend) Separate data from Niche shows that interest is shifting within tech itself. Traditional programming is seeing a drop in interest, while AI-focused roles and software engineering are gaining attention. Interestingly, not every discipline is being affected in the same way. Students in healthcare and natural sciences are among the least likely to change their majors due to AI concerns. Humanities fields are also seeing relatively lower movement. "I don't think students are seeing that AI is going to replace those," Brown said. At the same time, some universities are beginning to rethink how traditional subjects are taught, especially by adding AI-related components to humanities and liberal arts courses. Even with all this movement, experts say AI is not the only factor driving decisions. Traditional reasons like better pay, skill development, and career stability still matter more for most students.