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.”
