College students are changing course in search of 'AI-proof' majors. But no one knows what they are

Two years ago, Josephine Timperman arrived at college with a plan. She declared a major in business analytics, figuring she'd learn niche skills that would stand out on a resume and help land a good job after college.

But the rise of artificial intelligence has scrambled those calculations. The basic skills she was learning in things like statistical analysis and coding can now easily be automated. “Everyone has a fear that entry-level jobs will be taken by AI,” said the 20-year-old at Miami University in Ohio.

A few weeks ago, Timperman switched her major to marketing. Her new strategy is to use her undergraduate studies to build critical thinking and interpersonal skills — areas where humans still have an edge.

“You don’t just want to be able to code. You want to be able to have a conversation, form relationships and be able to think critically, because at the end of the day, that’s the thing that AI can’t replace,” said Timperman, who is keeping analytics as a minor and plans to dive deeper into the subject for a one-year master’s program.

Today’s college students say that picking a major that’s “AI-proof” feels like shooting at a moving target as they prepare for a job market that could be fundamentally different by the time they graduate.

As a result, many are reconsidering their career paths. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, while recent Gallup polling finds U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being replaced by new technologies.

The uncertainty appears most concentrated among those pursuing degrees in technology and vocational areas of study, where students feel a need to develop expertise in AI but also fear being replaced by it. A recent Quinnipiac poll found the vast majority of Americans believe it’s “very” or “somewhat” important for college and university students to be taught how to use AI, as Gallup Workforce polling finds AI is getting adopted in technology-related fields at higher rates. Meanwhile, students studying healthcare and natural sciences may be less impacted by AI overhauls, Gallup found.

“We see students all the time change majors. That’s not new or different. But it’s usually for a ton of different reasons,” said Courtney Brown, a vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the number of students who seek education beyond high school. “The fact that so many students say it’s because of AI — that is startling.”

A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between the ages of 14 and 29, found increasing skepticism and concerns about AI. Although half of Gen Z adults use AI at least “weekly,” and teenagers report higher use, many in this generation see drawbacks to the technology and worry about AI's impact on their cognitive abilities and job prospects. About half — 48% — of Gen Z workers say the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh the possible benefits.

Part of the challenge for college students is that the experts they would typically turn to for advice, like advisers, professors and parents, don’t have any answers. “Students are having to navigate this on their own, without a GPS,” says Brown.

That uncertainty was evident last month at Stanford University, where the leaders of several prominent universities gathered for a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of higher education. Topics of concern included the AI revolution that is transforming how students learn and forcing educators to rethink pedagogy.

“We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Brown University President Christina Paxson.

“And none of us know. We don’t know the answer to that,” Paxson said. “I think it’s communication, it’s critical thought. The fundamentals of a liberal education are probably more important than learning how to code in Java right now.”

Computer science major Ben Aybar, 22, graduated last spring from the University of Chicago and applied for about 50 jobs, mostly in software engineering, without getting a single interview. He pivoted to a master’s degree in computer science and meanwhile has found part-time work doing AI consulting for companies.

“People who know how to use AI will be very valuable,” said Aybar, who sees new jobs emerging that require AI skills, particularly for people who can explain the complexities in layman's terms. “Being able to talk to people and interact with people in a very human way I think is more valuable than ever.”

At the University of Virginia, data science major Ava Lawless is wondering if her major is worthwhile but can’t get concrete answers. Some advisers feel that data scientists will be safe because they’re the ones building AI models, but she keeps seeing gloomy job reports that indicate the contrary.

“It makes me feel a bit hopeless for the future,” Lawless said. “What if by the time I graduate there’s not even a job market for this anymore?”

She is considering switching to studio art, which is her minor.

“I’m at a point where I’m thinking if I can’t get a job being a data scientist, I might as well pursue art,” she said. “Because if I’m going to be unemployed, I might as well do something I love.”

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Josephine Timperman, a student at Miami University, poses for a portrait Friday, April 24, 2026, in Oxford, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Josephine Timperman, a student at Miami University, poses for a portrait Friday, April 24, 2026, in Oxford, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Josephine Timperman, a student at Miami University, poses for a portrait Friday, April 24, 2026, in Oxford, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

LONDON (AP) — Marlon James and Douglas Stuart have a chance to become only the fifth author to win the Booker Prize twice after both were named Tuesday on the shortlist for arguably the U.K.’s most prestigious fiction accolade.

Judges of the award whittled down the 13 semifinalists announced in July to six on Tuesday and said the shortlisted books are “moving, pacey, funny, violent, intriguing, horrifying and hopeful.” They were selected from an original 163 submissions.

The Booker Prize celebrates the best works of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland between October 2025 and Sept. 2026. The winner stands to win 50,000 pounds ($67,000) and a trophy named Iris, so-called after the 1978 winner Iris Murdoch.

“Most of these books were beginning to feel like old friends after at least two readings,” said historian Mary Beard, head of the judging panel. “And it was painful to have to let some of them go, with their now bent spines and dog-eared pages, their brilliant capacity to make us think, argue and sometimes disagree.”

The list includes James’ “The Disappearers,” about a group of gay men in his native Jamaica in what was a hostile environment in the 1980s; Stuart’s “ John of John,” a story of father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island. James won the Booker in 2015 for “A Brief History of Seven Killings” and Stuart won in 2020 for “Shuggie Bain.”

If either were to win, they would be the fifth author to have been awarded the Booker Prize twice, joining J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood.

Also on the shortlist is Pulitzer Prize laureate Elizabeth Strout, whose heartfelt small-town tale “The Things We Never Say” once again celebrates the lives of those in her native New England. Strout’s “Oh William!” was a finalist in 2022. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009 for “Olive Kitteridge.”

The others on the list are British authors Rebecca Perry for Medieval-to-modern tale “May We Feed the King”; 81-year-old M. John Harrison, who would become the oldest winner of the award if his postapocalyptic tale “The End of Everything” wins; and the quirky campus novel “Black Bag” from Luke Kennard.

It’s only the second time in the past decade that men have outnumbered women on the shortlist.

Beard said the judging panel, which included Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and American novelist Patricia Lockwood, concluded their deliberations “neatly propped up against one another, almost glowing.”

“These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic, from the powerfully shocking to the intriguingly understated,” she said.

Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers and is open to novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland. Last year’s winner was “Flesh” by Hungarian-British writer David Szalay.

This year's winner will be announced on Monday, Nov. 9.

FILE - Douglas Stuart poses for a portrait on April 29, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Elizabeth Strout poses with her book, 'Tell Me Everything," in London on June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Joanna Chan, File)

FILE - Jamaican author Marlon James poses with the award after his book, "A Brief History of Seven Killings," was named as winner of the 2015 Booker Prize for Fiction in London on Oct. 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)