15 AI-Resilient College Majors

While most alumni don’t think AI will eliminate their jobs anytime soon, current students are already rethinking their futures because of it.

An April Gallup-Lumina survey found that 42% of bachelor’s students have considered changing majors because of AI, and 16% already have. Meanwhile, alumni in a May survey said it was either “not too likely” (32%) or “not at all likely” (47%) that AI would eliminate their jobs in the next five years.

But some data show students may have reason to worry. Tufts University research projects major job displacement due to AI in the next 2-5 years, especially in high-paying fields relying on writing, coding, and other knowledge work.

The study found that 38% of American workers are “AI-proof,” though many of those jobs are concentrated in physically-driven, lower-paying industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and construction. That said, some bachelor’s-level careers combine solid salaries with lower percentages of jobs lost to AI, making these majors safer bets.

Healthcare and social assistance fields require in-person care and nuance that AI cannot easily replace. Social assistance fields like social work can help children, individuals, and families work through and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral issues.

Tufts’ research found that just 3.6% of jobs in this field are at risk due to AI on the whole, which is low compared to fields, like writing, facing a higher 57% job loss risk.

You can become a certified nursing assistant (CNA) with just a high school diploma or GED, while other roles require an advanced degree.

Healthcare and social assistance majors that can lead to AI-resilient jobs include:

Some graduate programs related to careers at a low risk of AI job loss include:

Construction-related careers also seem to be relatively safe from job displacement due to AI. Construction managers face a 2% job loss. Many people employed in construction hold bachelor’s or advanced degrees — especially those who manage others on the work site.

Here are a few majors that can get you into this low-risk field:

Graduate programs that can help you enter construction include:

While AI may be able to automate some workflows in these fields, humans are responsible for managing supply chains, transporting goods, and warehousing. These jobs face some of the lowest AI job losses at 2.3%.

Supply chain managers are responsible for procuring materials, managing inventory, and making business decisions, as well as forecasting global economic shifts. Similarly, transportation managers oversee the transportation chain from procurement to delivery, manage large systems, and coordinate the physical delivery of products.

Two majors that can lead to low-risk transportation and warehousing management jobs — facing just 5% AI job loss — include:

Tufts found that the fields requiring advanced education were some of the most susceptible to AI. While skilled trades aren’t college majors, they are among the most AI-resilient fields you can enter, as they require manual skills.

Trade schools can take only up to one year to complete and cost much less than a college degree. In some cases, you can also build experience through apprenticeships and internships, where you learn under a mentor for a set period.

Here are some of the best trades you can enter to protect your job from AI without sacrificing good pay:

Tufts examined that some of the most vulnerable fields are high-income, high-skill, cognitively intensive jobs — fields that require advanced education, language processing, critical thinking, and domain expertise.

These fields face potential job losses of up to 57% to AI, all of which typically require bachelor’s degrees and can offer median salaries of over $100k per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Careers with high projected percentages of jobs lost to AI include:

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t major in any of these fields — experts believe jobs including tasks AI can automate will evolve, and the Tufts study recommends policy changes to incentivize reskilling in these careers.