College Students Adapt Majors in Response to AI's Impact on Job Market

Leaders of several prominent universities gathered for a panel discussion on the future of higher education at Stanford University last month. The discussion addressed the AI revolution transforming how students learn and forcing educators to rethink pedagogy.

“We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Brown University President Christina Paxson.

“And none of us know. We don’t know the answer to that,” Paxson said. “I think it’s communication, it’s critical thought. Ben Aybar, a 22-year-old computer science major, graduated last spring from the University of Chicago.

He applied for about 50 jobs, mostly in software engineering, without getting a single interview. Aybar pivoted to a master’s degree in computer science and has found part-time work doing AI consulting for companies. “People who know how to use AI will be very valuable,” Aybar said.

He sees new jobs emerging that require AI skills, particularly for those who can explain complexities in layman's terms. At the University of Virginia, data science major Ava Lawless is questioning her major's viability amid gloomy job reports. “It makes me feel a bit hopeless for the future,” Lawless said.

She is considering switching to studio art, her minor. “We see students all the time change majors. That’s not new or different. But it’s usually for a ton of different reasons,” said Courtney Brown, a vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit.

Brown noted students are navigating this uncertainty without clear guidance from advisers, professors or parents. “Students are having to navigate this on their own, without a GPS,” Brown said. The uncertainty appears most concentrated among those pursuing degrees in technology and vocational areas, where students feel a need to develop AI expertise but fear replacement by it.

@ABC reported these developments based on interviews and polling data.