Asked how they feel about AI\u2019s impact on their future career, half of student respondents answered, \u201cUncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | PhonlamaiPhoto\/iStock\/Getty Images | ruizluquepaz\/E+\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Nearly half\u201442\u00a0percent\u2014of college-eligible students say that artificial intelligence will influence which career they pursue, and 10\u00a0percent report that they have already changed their planned major due to concerns about AI, according to a report released Tuesday<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cAI is upending the value equation in higher education,\u201d said Pam Royall, head of research at the education consultancy EAB and co-author of the report. \u201cColleges must prove they\u2019re preparing graduates by offering experiential learning and emphasizing in-demand, durable job skills that are less likely to become obsolete in an AI-driven economy.\u201d<\/p>\n In an annual survey conducted in February and March, EAB surveyed 9,516 students who were eligible to enroll at a college for the fall 2025 term about their college plans. About nine in 10 of the survey respondents said they attend or are planning to attend college\u2014the same share as the previous two years, but a decrease from 2015, when 98\u00a0percent of respondents said the same.<\/p>\n Their attitudes about AI\u2019s impact reflect those captured in other surveys; for example, a Gallup and Lumina Foundation poll released<\/a> earlier this month showed that 47\u00a0percent of students have thought about switching their major either \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201ca fair amount\u201d amid the rise of AI. <\/p>\n \u201cI planned to be a therapist, but the way the world is going, by the time I\u00a0obtain my degree, AI will have my job,\u201d one student wrote in their response to the EAB survey. Another student said that \u201cafter seeing AI replacing entry-level jobs,\u201d they switched their major from computer science to electrical and computer engineering.<\/p>\n Asked how they feel about AI\u2019s impact on their future career, half of student respondents answered, \u201cUncertain.\u201d About 10\u00a0percent said they felt \u201cdepressed,\u201d 32\u00a0percent said \u201cconcerned\u201d and 31\u00a0percent answered \u201cnervous\/anxious.\u201d Only 7\u00a0percent of respondents said they feel \u201cexcited,\u201d and 13\u00a0percent were \u201coptimistic\u201d about AI\u2019s impact on their future career. <\/p>\n Their concerns aren\u2019t without justification<\/a>; between 2022 and 2025, employment for early-career workers in \u201cAI-exposed\u201d occupations like software development and clerical work dropped 16\u00a0percent compared to employment for more experienced workers in those roles. As AI proliferates, unemployment for recent college graduates is on the rise. In June 2025, the unemployment rate for bachelor\u2019s degree holders<\/a> between 22 and 27 years old was 6.6\u00a0percent\u20142.6\u00a0percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate of 4\u00a0percent. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m unsure if my job opportunities will still be there, but there\u2019s no way to know fully,\u201d one student respondent wrote in the EAB survey. <\/p>\n About a third of students said that, due to advances in AI, they believe fewer jobs will require a college degree. A quarter said they think more jobs will require a college degree, and 29\u00a0percent were unsure. <\/p>\n In determining the value of a college degree, 44\u00a0percent of students look at postgraduation job placement, the EAB survey shows. About 35\u00a0percent of students look at access to internships as an indicator of college value, 30\u00a0percent look at financial aid and 29\u00a0percent look at tuition prices. <\/p>\n Cost of living was an often-cited reason for deciding not to enroll in college\u201466\u00a0percent of students said it\u2019s a primary financial concern, up from 51\u00a0percent the year prior. About a quarter of students said they opted out of attending college because they wanted to take some time off before enrolling, and another quarter said it was because they couldn\u2019t afford to go to college at all. About 12\u00a0percent of students said they opted out because they needed to work\u2014a three-percentage-point increase from the previous entering class.<\/p>\n While they worry about AI\u2019s impact on their future careers, students are also using the tools to aid in their college search. This year, 26\u00a0percent of students reported using AI to aid in their college search, compared with 14\u00a0percent last year. Students of color in particular are turning to the tools\u201437\u00a0percent of Black students and 29\u00a0percent of Asian students said they used AI in their college search, compared to 21\u00a0percent of white students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asked how they feel about AI\u2019s impact on their future career, half of student respondents answered, \u201cUncertain.\u201d Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,501,76,293,500,382,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-22688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-career","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-events","13":"tag-higher","14":"tag-jobs","15":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}