47% of college students have seriously considered changing majors due to AI: Survey

Roughly one in six college students say that they've changed their major or field of study due to concerns about AI's impact on the job market, according to survey results from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education Study.

The survey was conducted online in Oct. 2025 among 3,801 U.S. students aged 18 to 59 who were pursuing bachelor's or associate degrees. It found that 13% of bachelor's degree students say they've already changed their major or field of study because of AI, with 19% of associate degree students reporting the same.

What's more, about 47% of all college students — about 42% of bachelor's degree students and about 56% of associate degree students — say that they've given at least "a fair amount" of consideration to changing their majors due to AI.

The survey findings show that AI is changing how students "think about their futures," according to Courtney Brown, Ph.D., vice president of impact and planning at Lumina Foundation.

"They're hearing a lot in the media about AI taking over all these jobs," she says, and it's causing students to wonder whether "the time and the money that they're investing in getting these degrees is going to pay off."

According to Brown, students are worried that their degrees won't lead to viable career opportunities. They're asking themselves, "What major do I need to get that's going to help me ensure that I can get a job when I get out?" she says.

Associate degree students were even more likely than bachelor's students to switch majors, which Brown hypothesizes is because "their credentials are more closely tied to the current needs in the workforce."

The issue for both groups is that students aren't exactly sure which majors will remain "relevant in an AI world," she says.

Students in technology and vocational fields are most likely to say that they've considered changing majors "a great deal," at 27% and 17% respectively. But Brown points out that those students are also most likely to say that they already made a switch into technology and vocational majors.

Those results may seem "like a contradiction," she says, but they accurately reflect students' uncertainty about which degrees will pay off in the current job market. "They're not sure what they should do. Should they go into technology? Should they stay away from technology?" Brown says. "None of us are really sure what AI is going to do."

AI is also playing a role as students decide whether to pursue higher education in the first place. Approximately one in seven students say that preparing for technological advances including AI is a top reason they enrolled in a degree program, while 12% point to concerns about AI's potential impact on the job market as a factor, according to the survey.

Many students are hoping to learn AI skills in college, but not all institutions offer such training, Brown says. AI policies vary widely among colleges, and 29% of students say that their school is not adequately preparing them to use AI after graduation.

The result is that students are making "high-stakes decisions" around AI and their future careers without having "clear guidance" from their schools, Brown says.

Still, Brown emphasizes that no matter which major you choose, higher education still provides irreplaceable skills like "communication, critical thinking, the ability to work in groups and to question and analyze and synthesize."

"We know that the workforce and technology [are] going to continue to change," she says. "People are going to need to continue to upskill and reskill even after they have a degree, but having some of those durable skills is really going to help them."

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