Universities struggle to adapt as students reconsider majors amid AI

by Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro - 04/13/26 6:47 PM ET

Technology

The Big Story

Universities struggle to adapt as students reconsider majors amid AI

A recent poll shows AI’s increasing role in how students decide on college majors, creating a rapidly developing situation for universities that are still struggling to determine how the technology will shape higher education.

The Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education survey found 47 percent of currently enrolled college students have thought about switching majors “a great deal” or a “fair amount” over AI concerns.

Around 16 percent pointed to AI as the reason they changed their field of study.

“We’re getting to a point where it’s almost unacceptable, right, that we’re having all of these conferences and all of these roundtable discussions, and we are failing to provide students with some just meaningful advice and helping them to feel like they’re prepared,” said Alex Kotran, CEO of the AI Education Project.

“If students were adequately prepared, you wouldn’t see as many of them change their major, or you would see that happening in a way that schools are driving, but they’re not doing that,” he added.

The survey found men and those going for associate degrees were more likely to consider a field change due to AI, along with those in technology, vocational and humanities majors.

Those least likely to have considered switching majors include students in fields such as health care and natural sciences.

The fright of how AI will impact jobs students are looking for is not unfounded as messages of job declines due to the technology have only ramped up since its increased use in the past few years.

In February, the AI chief for Microsoft told the Financial Times he believes AI will take over all white-collar work in the next 18 months.

The Hill’s Lexi Lonas Cochran has more here.

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