Artificial Intelligence, and its potential applications, have been big news recently. It is seen as a game changer for many industries, with companies and workers all wondering where it will appear next, and what new skills it might have. Of course, it still remains to be seen just how much AI lives up to the current hype, but many workers are already worrying about it coming for their jobs.
As high school students look forward to college, and a career thereafter, many of them are asking the same questions. After all, if a career or degree gets made redundant, then why bother studying it? We can’t truly predict the future, but in this article we’re going to cover the college majors most and least impacted by AI, and those with the surest careers, based on the current and forecasted abilities of generative AIs.
A Note on AIs and Liability
Something that is going to come up a lot in this article is the idea of liability. That is, who is legally responsible for an action or event. There are many careers which AI can theoretically take control over, but which will always need human oversight because of liability risks.
This isn’t just the Terminator scenario where giving an AI control of our nuclear weapons dooms civilization (though we probably shouldn’t do that either). If an AI lawyer steers a client wrong, who is to blame? If a building designed by an AI collapses, who is liable for the damages? If an AI promises something that a company can’t deliver on, are they still responsible?
These are legal questions, not technical ones, but are going to be one of the main factors in many careers not being overtaken by AI. We include this note here to introduce and explain this concept, and our reasoning.
College Majors That Are Safest From AI
We aren’t going to list these in any particular order, because it is hard to judge how safe one major is compared to another, especially when the safety from AI comes from different areas. For one reason or another, however, all of these majors are going to be difficult to supplant with AI technology as it currently exists.
Law
So law is technically a graduate degree, rather than a major, but many students still attend college with the goal of one day pursuing a legal career. This is probably the safest major from AI on liability and cultural grounds alone. In terms of technical capacity, AI can do most of what a lawyer does (though it doesn’t always do it well).
The issue is that doing legal work at all is incredibly protected, with only certain individuals credentialed to do so. An AI could pass the bar, but that doesn’t allow it to give legal counsel. The only people who can change this in the US are Congress, or the Supreme Court, two groups known for their close proximity to lawyers. While an AI may theoretically be able to do legal work, it will likely never be allowed to, making these jobs safe for the foreseeable future.
Political Science
Political Science (and Public Policy, Foreign Relations, and related majors) are intended for students who want to enter public service. There are many jobs here that could likely be done by AI, but chances are good many never will. This is because the people writing the laws are generally politicians, who definitely don’t want AI coming for their jobs either.
While we may see the introduction of AI into some fields of public service, it will never be able to supplant human workers. This is due to both institutional momentum, and liability concerns. If you choose your major with an aim towards public service or politics, you are likely to have a career in the future (if you can get anyone to vote for you).
Medicine
Pre-med isn’t a major (as we have covered before), though nursing is; and there are many other fields within medicine covered by this collection of majors. Overall, the general field of medicine, and the majors that lead to it, are protected from AI in two ways: liability and technical limitations.
This isn’t to say AI will have no impact on medicine. People are already starting to use it to analyze test results or in telehealth applications. There are still practical limitations to this technology; AI can’t do surgery, or give a child a pre-sport physical, or perform a root canal. Similarly, there are some things we may not be comfortable with AI doing, such as prescribing medications. While AI has already made a major impact on the field of medicine, and will continue to do so, students who pick majors with the aim of working in this field will find plenty of jobs waiting for them.
Engineering
There are many different engineering majors, each with their own benefits and career trajectory. All of these will be impacted by AI in some way, though some are likely to be hit much harder than others. The safest are the majors where AI intervention is unfeasible due to the physical nature of the task, like mechanical engineering, or where the liability risk of AI is too great, like in nuclear engineering.
The majors which are likely to see the largest disruption from AI are those closest to it, especially as AI learns to write code. Software engineering and the majors related to it, including computer science, are going to be necessary, but also precarious. Engineering does require certification and assumption of liability however, which protects many of these majors from complete takeover by AI.
Performing Arts
There are many majors in the arts, and some related to them, from filmmaking to violin to stagecraft. These are protected from AI in a few different ways. That isn’t to say it will be easy to get jobs with these majors, as these are notoriously competitive fields, merely that they are likely to be protected somewhat from AI.
Live shows, of course, cannot yet be replaced by an AI, as the people doing the performance are the entire point. For screen acting, AI is a known risk, but the power of the actors’ union has forestalled that for now. This field will not be safe forever, especially given the monetary incentives for screen and voice acting, but the live arts will be harder to crack.
Physical Specialties
This is a mixed group of majors which rely heavily on field work. While AI is increasingly powerful within the digital space, and robots are gaining some autonomous capabilities, the reality is that large amounts of fieldwork must still be done by trained and credentialed professionals. This covers a broad sweep of majors, including, but not limited to:
- Archaeology
- Paleontology
- Wildlife ecology
- Marine biology
- Botany
- Anthropology
- Forestry
AI will impact all of these fields greatly, especially when it comes to analyzing the mountains of data they generate. But the work on the ground still needs to be done, and AI is not nearly in a position yet to do any of it.
College Majors That Are Most Impacted by AI
These majors may not be replaced entirely by AI, but all are in fields which AI has already made a major impact on, and lack many of the safeguards that other fields have to limit their potential for replacement. This doesn’t mean that these majors are worthless or that these careers are definitely going away, merely that AI’s impact on these fields is going to be widespread, with implications we don’t yet understand.
Finance
Business is a broad field, and not all majors are susceptible to AI. That said, stock trading specifically is already almost entirely controlled by algorithms; humans simply cannot keep up. Humans are still involved to some extent of course, choosing priorities and making sure the algorithms don’t tank the economy, but the stronger the AIs become, the more tasks they can take on.
This applies to other areas of business and accounting as well. Much of the work of manipulating numbers or crafting statements can be done easily by AI. Indeed, studies show that even CEOs are vulnerable to being replaced with AIs. Some market forces may protect their jobs instead, after all it’s difficult to replace the person who owns the company. But as drives to cut costs and increase efficiency continue, some companies are going to take the plunge of replacing upper management.
There will always be applications for business majors, but many of these careers can be replaced in whole or in part by AI. Consulting is one of the key exceptions, though many other positions are far more vulnerable.
Journalism
AI has already shown its capability for writing, so long as you are ok with a sometimes loose interpretation of facts. This isn’t only a problem for troll farms or obviously fake news websites; Sports Illustrated published a number of articles seemingly written by AI, then retracted them after backlash. Now Sports Illustrated may not be winning any Pullitzers, but they are a major publication, and their use of AI is a worrying sign for the state of the industry as a whole.
Journalism is already a struggling field, and the ability for publications to reduce costs by using AI in place of journalists will only hurt it further. The big players will likely continue to employ actual journalists, but AI is likely to begin restricting the number of positions in this field greatly.
Game Development
Video game design is a niche area of programming, but a very popular one with some students. Many of the same factors which make AI a threat to actors and programmers apply to this field however, and game developers do not have the same strong union protections as actors.
Indie games can and will continue, and there will always be some market for games developed as passion projects. Major studios are likely to begin moving to AI for an increasing number of coding and art roles, however, as a cost cutting measure. Luckily coding is a field with multiple applications, but you can expect roles in game design to become increasingly competitive.
Graphic Design
AI art is unlikely to win any awards, and has been rightly criticized multiple times in multiple ways. That said, many people are ok with a mediocre product so long as it is cheap, and AI is definitely cheaper than hiring an actual graphic designer. This impacts many fields in the visual arts, but graphic design was often seen as the safe career choice for visual artists, even if it didn’t offer the same artistic integrity as trying to make it as an artist.
With the advent of AI art however, there will be far fewer jobs available for graphic designers and other visual artists. Some firms will still employ them, but many more will look to cut costs by using AI, even if it does mess up the number of fingers a human should have.
Marketing
Advertising is a big business in itself, from coming up with concepts to actually creating the ad copy. As AI tools improve their ability to create both writing and other media however, their impact on advertising will grow. Some of this is already happening, with algorithms controlling which ads get shown to consumers when. Soon however, the ads themselves can be entirely composed by AI, or with heavy AI influence.
Unlike other fields, marketers and advertisers don’t have the strong labor protections or need for liability checks, so there aren’t outside forces to prevent their jobs being replaced. There will always be some room for experts in marketing, to direct the AI programs if nothing else, but many positions will be fully replaceable with new technology.
Final Thoughts
AI is still a novel technology, and it remains to be seen if it’s truly a seismic shift, or just another tech bubble. That said, we’re already seeing its applications in a number of fields, and it’s likely to cause major disruptions across dozens of different industries. While the scope is uncertain, we do think it will have a major impact.
As students plan out their future majors and careers, this is just one consideration they need to have. Finding the right major is already challenging, and this new stressor of living in interesting times only compounds the issue. If you want to speak with experts about finding the right major for you, or want any other advice on how to craft an application to top colleges, schedule a free consultation today. We have a long experience helping students with their applications, and are always happy to hear from you.
