Matthew Ramirez started at Western Governors University as a computer science major in 2025, drawn by the promise of a high-paying, flexible career as a programmer. But as headlines mounted about tech layoffs and AI’s potential to replace entry-level coders, he began to question whether that path would actually lead to a job.

When the 20-year-old interviewed for a datacenter technician role that June and never heard back, his doubts deepened. In December, Ramirez decided on what he thought was a safer bet: turning away from computer science entirely. He dropped his planned major to instead apply to nursing school. He comes from a family of nurses, and sees the field as more stable and harder to automate than coding.

“Even though AI might not be at the point where it will overtake all these entry-level jobs now, by the time I graduate, it likely will,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez is not alone in reshaping his career out of anxiety over AI. As students like him are reconsidering their majors over concerns that AI may disrupt their employment prospects, more established workers – some with decades of experience – are rethinking their trajectories because they’re encountering AI at work and share the same unease. Some workers are eschewing it entirely; others are embracing it.