The AI Pivot: Survey Finds Many College Students Are Reconsidering Their Majors and Career Paths

New Gallup data reveals how Gen Z is feeling about job replacement and AI.

BY MOSES JEANFRANCOIS, NEWS WRITER @MOSESJEANS

Illustration: Getty Images

ChatGPT is becoming both a friend and a foe. New data shows that college students are changing majors and career paths due to fear of AI replacement. 

With the recent job market facing layoffs, primarily in the tech sector, Gen Z college students are hoping their next career path won’t also be consumed by the on-going AI uptick. A new survey from Lumina Foundation and Gallup finds that nearly half of U.S. college students have seriously considered changing their major or course of study in response to AI’s growing influence on the job market. 

Based on results from October 2025 surveying nearly 4,000 students, 16% have already changed their major due to AI. And the rapidly evolving work landscape is resulting in job insecurity for the new generation. 

Despite the notion that current college students have become comfortable with AI due to their own usage in classrooms, data shows fear among this age group. The polling shows how quickly AI is altering career planning. Fourteen percent of college students say they’ve thought “a great deal” about changing their field of study due to AI’s impact on the job market, with an additional 33 percent saying they’ve thought “a fair amount.” 

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Sixty percent of male students report thinking about a switch, compared with 38 percent of female students. The numbers are even higher among those studying technology (70 percent) and vocational fields (71 percent), outpacing students in business and the humanities (both 54 percent) and engineering (52 percent). 

The polling also noted that current college students are still using AI despite discouragement from their institutions. It found that 42 percent of students said their colleges discourage the use of AI in coursework, yet significant numbers still rely on it: 15 percent use AI daily, 33 percent weekly, and 12 percent monthly. Even at schools where AI is outright prohibited, 10 percent of students report using it daily and 17 percent weekly. 

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Courtney Brown, vice president of impact and planning at Lumina Foundation, told Axios in an interview that she fears institutions are failing at teaching students about AI and its biases. 

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