As artificial intelligence tools take on more routine office tasks, some young adults are reconsidering what to study and which careers to pursue. Their decisions are unfolding alongside early research that points to a widening employment gap in occupations most exposed to AI, while leaving open how much of the change is caused by the technology itself.
Keon Davis was studying marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he began using generative AI. During a summer internship, he saw the tools handle tasks similar to work he had been doing, including drafting outreach messages and conducting consumer research. Before graduating in 2024, he changed direction and joined Teach for America. He now teaches third grade in New York City, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
Davis is among young workers and students weighing whether jobs that depend on in-person judgment, care, communication or hands-on skills may be less exposed to automation. Some are looking toward teaching, health care and skilled trades. That choice can reflect interest in the work as well as concern about how quickly technology may change entry-level office jobs.
Public concern has risen. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in June found that 73% of U.S. adults under 30 believed artificial intelligence would lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years. In 2024, 61% of that age group said the same.
Employment data also show a gap between younger workers in occupations with high AI exposure and their peers in less-exposed fields. An August update from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, using payroll data with ADP Research, found that employment among workers ages 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed occupations was 19% below where it would have been if it had kept pace with employment among less-exposed peers.
The comparison does not mean that AI has eliminated 19% of those jobs. Stanford’s analysis describes a relative shortfall, and its authors say the data do not show widespread job displacement across the labor market. Employment in all exposure groups has grown, though growth has been slower among the youngest workers in the most exposed occupations. Other factors, including hiring patterns and broader economic conditions, also shape employment.
For students and recent graduates, the uncertainty is immediate even as researchers continue to study the longer-term effects. Schools and training programs are adapting by adding AI skills to courses and expanding routes into fields where people work directly with patients, children, equipment or customers. Those occupations are not guaranteed to be untouched by technology, but they may require forms of human interaction and physical work that current AI tools handle differently.
The available evidence points to a changing transition into work rather than a settled forecast about which careers will disappear. Workers, educators and employers are now making choices while the technology and its effects continue to develop.
Sources: The Washington Post; Pew Research Center; Stanford Digital Economy Lab.