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A marked shift in college student preferences is taking place in the United States. More and more young people are choosing degrees in artificial intelligence, abandoning traditional computer science, which is considered less career-secure than in the past.
The phenomenon is evident at major universities. At MIT, the three-year program in “Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making,” launched in 2022, has become the university’s second-most popular program in just three years, after Computer Science. By 2025, enrollment is expected to reach approximately 330 students.
Other universities are following suit. The University of South Florida launched an Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Institute with over 3,000 students in its first semester, while the University of California, San Diego launched a bachelor’s degree program in AI that has already attracted 150 freshmen.
The shift in student behavior is closely tied to the evolution of the tech job market. Recent waves of layoffs in Silicon Valley have diminished the appeal of a computer science degree, once considered a guaranteed job.
According to Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the context has changed profoundly: while in the past, computer science graduates received multiple job offers before even finishing their studies, today even a single offer is considered a positive outcome.
The increasing automation of programming , fueled by the use of artificial intelligence tools, has also reduced the demand for junior programmers. Companies like Amazon are already requiring their engineers to use AI-based automated coding systems.
The numbers confirm the trend. According to Programs.com, online job postings requiring skills in generative AI have increased by 323% in the last year . Today, over 300 U.S. universities offer degrees in AI.
Between 2022 and 2025, master’s degrees in artificial intelligence will nearly double, from 116 to 310, while bachelor’s degrees will increase from 90 in 2024 to 193 in 2025. At the same time, 62% of computer science degree programs saw a decline in enrollment in the last academic year.
According to Tracy Camp, executive director of the Association for Computing Research, this isn’t the end of computer science, but a new phase of specialization . Artificial intelligence is becoming the cornerstone of many disciplines, extending its impact to fields such as healthcare, finance, law, and engineering.
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