The 25 college majors that may be safest from AI, ranked

If you’re hoping to get an early-career job in the age of AI, get ready to pick up the hard hat, scrubs, or chalk.

Recent graduates are entering a job market where entry-level work is increasingly being reshaped by AI models, but not all fields may be equally exposed.

Business Insider analyzed data from a September working paper by US Census Bureau researchers that estimates the extent to which different fields of study are exposed to AI.

The paper evaluates exposure by assessing whether GPT-4 could substantially reduce the time required to complete tasks in jobs that young graduates in each field typically enter.

Some of the most exposed fields, according to the working paper, include computer-focused fields such as computer science, computer engineering, and computer programming, as well as information sciences.

Statistics, applied mathematics, electrical engineering, actuarial science, and journalism also ranked among the highest-exposure fields.

The study found that graduates in the highest-exposure fields were 5 percentage points less likely to be employed in the quarter after graduation and had 13% lower initial full-quarter earnings than graduates in less-exposed fields after ChatGPT became widely available in 2022.

On the other hand, fields like teaching, medical assisting, and nutrition were found to be among the least exposed to AI.

For this ranking, Business Insider looked at the fields in the paper’s three lowest-exposure deciles and combined closely related specialties to rank the 25 least-exposed general career paths.

While looking at job exposure to AI can help draw a picture of what jobs may be more vulnerable, this ranking isn’t definitive, and the study reflects only GPT-4’s ability to speed up job tasks.

See what college majors might be safest from AI in the future.