What is the best academic path to prepare a young person for a career that will be impacted by Artificial Intelligence? Students, parents, and our educational institutions are questioning many long-held assumptions about education and how to best prepare for the future.
Historically, a college education has been the golden ticket to prosperity: college grads more easily found employment, highly selective universities returned handsomely on their investment, and particular majors, especially in the STEM fields, led to highly lucrative careers. There was a well-laid path that parents followed and encouraged their children to follow. But recent trends paint a more nuanced picture of the immediate and long-term returns of a college education, impacted by higher costs, shifts in supply and demand of educated workers, and the rise of Artificial Intelligence:
- The higher cost of education is shifting the calculus and the rate of return on investment (ROI) of a college degree. Students are having to go deeper into debt to finance their post-secondary education, delaying the onset of wealth creation, home ownership, and family formation.
- A greater proportion of young adults have now attained post-secondary degrees, shifting the supply and demand curves. The labor-market advantages conferred by having a college degree have eroded slightly. Consequently, the unemployment rate of recent college grads is rising as recent graduates now spend longer to find work.
- AI is decreasing the availability of entry-level jobs. Many companies are reducing internships and early-career programs, decreasing their investment in young grads, as they contemplate their future workforce needs in this new technological era.
- For certain fields, such as computer science, AI is making employees more efficient, thus reducing the need for new hires. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has shared that 90% of the code presently written at Anthropic is AI-generated, and he estimates that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. For those ambitious kids who pursued a rigorous course of study in computer science, career prospects are uncertain, as they now have to compete with more seasoned developers in a more saturated job market.
Back in November 2022, when OpenAI uploaded the trial version of ChatGPT to the internet, few computer science majors imagined that within three years this software would be able to complete most of the coding tasks for which they were training and that Silicon Valley’s leading tech companies would be laying off developers by the tens of thousands. This type of rapid disruption is stressful for students and for the parents who are hoping to guide them towards financial stability and sound career prospects.
For parents, giving career advice has never been more challenging. Some parents, examining their own career paths and the growing role of AI in their industries, advise their kids to avoid their own educational and career trajectories. There’s a growing sense that many of the analytical and managerial roles to which they aspired will be most vulnerable to disruption. This will impact many of the white-collar professions, from consulting to financial analysis and beyond. Some technology and knowledge workers are actively encouraging their kids to consider hands-on fields that may be relatively immune, at least in the short term, to AI. Others contemplate if it’s even possible for their kids to choose a career path that is “AI-proof.”
Given these developments, coupled with the higher cost of a college education, families are closely scrutinizing the financial investment and returns of higher education. Last year, I wrote an article about the ROI in education and followed it up with a piece on specific skills that should remain valuable in the age of AI. These considerations have become increasingly important, as AI is changing the equation for the ROI of particular majors, and colleges are responding by adjusting their educational offerings, cutting back on liberal arts programs, and increasing AI offerings.
ROI and Student Fit
In recent years, students have increasingly gravitated towards majors with higher financial returns, such as STEM and healthcare, and have moved away from the liberal arts and humanities. The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has been tracking ROI for individual college majors for years, and they recently came out with a new report detailing the expected earnings and career trajectories for students across a broad array of fields. It is no surprise that STEM degrees continue to be highly popular, given that 17 of the 20 most lucrative majors come from the STEM fields. Business and healthcare are not far behind. In contrast, those with bachelor’s degrees in the humanities, arts, and liberal arts experienced the lowest median earnings.
Students have been following the money. Per Georgetown’s analysis, since 2009, the number of degrees conferred in the humanities and liberal arts has declined 33%, coupled with 14% declines in the field of education and 6% declines in the social sciences. During that period, STEM and CS degrees have increased 159%, while degrees in the health professions have increased 109%. Between 2010 and 2022, the share of recent college grads with a STEM degree increased broadly from 19% to 28%. Students have been rationally moving towards opportunity and financial stability. But we have apparently overproduced certain majors, like CS, leading to a glut and rising unemployment for recent grads.
While ROI matters, it’s not the only factor to consider when contemplating a college major and career. Individual factors and fit are as critical as the median earnings of graduates from specific majors. Don’t make the mistake of placing undue emphasis on median values, which are single points on a continuum. Half of the STEM grads earn below the median for their fields, as half of the non-STEM grads earn above the median values for their fields. And countless liberal arts and humanities majors have achieved tremendous career and financial success: To list a few, the CEO of Palantir majored in Philosophy, the CEO of Bank of America was a history major, and the CEO of J Crew majored in English. That is to say, you don’t need a STEM degree to be highly successful. And those who tend to achieve great career success are often well matched with their profession of choice.
Before selecting a major, students need to dedicate time reflecting on themselves and expanding their knowledge about the world of work. AI hasn’t changed this in the least. Students are naturally going to be interested in achieving economic stability and independence after college, but money cannot be the only consideration. Students need to factor in their values, passions, and goals. They need to explore different fields through work experiences, internships, and shadowing experiences. Self-awareness, coupled with knowledge of different career paths, helps students choose majors that will be a better fit in the long term.
STEM Majors and the CS to AI Shift
In the age of AI, STEM fields will continue to attract a great deal of student interest, matching industry demand. Students will learn to work with AI in many STEM fields, ranging from data science and statistics to engineering, robotics, and automation. Many students who are quantitatively oriented and drawn to technical problem-solving will find a home in a STEM major.
Just as there was rapid growth in the field of computer science following the Great Recession, we are seeing that same level of growth in AI programs and majors following the release of ChatGPT. According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, enrollment in computer science programs dropped 7.7% this fall and is down 5.3% since 2023. As CS declines, AI programs are expanding and absorbing that demand. Inside Higher Ed found that enrollment in AI programs has experienced annual growth of 45% for the last five years. Across the US, 193 undergraduate AI degree programs and 310 master’s degree programs have emerged, doubling from 2022 to 2025.
While AI is the hottest field of 2025, it’s obvious that not everyone will be able to work in the field of developing Artificial Intelligence. Many fields of study will lead to highly satisfying careers.
Finding Majors that are AI-resistant
Some fields are so hands-on that they will provide a buffer, in the short term, against advances in AI. Many of these fields are in healthcare, nursing, medicine, social work, and education. The human touch, empathy, and human connections differentiate these fields, offering them some protection from technological replacement.
Looking Beyond the Major
A significant portion of students who graduate from college end up in fields distant from their college major. Pew found that 69% of workers who completed their post-secondary degrees find that their undergraduate or graduate major is at least “somewhat related” to their current work. This leaves 31% of workers who are working in fields totally unrelated to their fields of study. Many successful individuals find their niche in areas that have nothing to do with what they studied in college.
While the specific content of what a student studies in college is important, the meta-skills one cultivates there are even more important: learning how to learn, how to recruit support and work collaboratively with others, how to communicate effectively in both spoken and written formats, and how to manage time and resources. These are the highly transferable skills that will impact the success of most any career, irrespective of college major. College students must learn to think critically, to become comfortable using data and evidence to answer questions. They must shift beyond their own initial ideas, consider other perspectives, and grow in cognitive flexibility and adaptability.
Keeping Perspective
Choosing a college major is but one step along a lifelong journey of education and work. Many individuals will continue their education well beyond a bachelor's degree and will pursue advanced degrees, certificates, credentials, and more. The act of choosing a major is not necessarily a limiting factor or a closing off of potential futures. Reinvention and adaptation will be a hallmark of success in the coming years as the world of work continually evolves. When making this decision, certainly, attend to the marketplace and understand where there is demand for certain skills and a return on the financial investment being made. At the same time, attune to your personal interests as you look to create a career path that is both satisfying and meaningful for the long term.
.webp)
