Nearly one-third of university students feel “worried” or “worried” about the impact AI will have on their future career.
Photo Illustration: Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Abrokhin and Von Ramai Photo/iStock/Getty Images
College students may be using AI-powered tools almost every day, but their anxiety and anger over technology’s rapid intrusion into their lives is taking center stage this graduation season.
At the University of Central Florida’s commencement ceremony in Orlando earlier this month, students cheered when featured speaker Gloria Caulfield, an investment executive, reminded them that “just a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives.” But when she declared that “the rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” the cheers quickly turned to boos.
A similar scene unfolded last weekend at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told about 10,000 recent graduates that he sympathizes with their fears that “machines are coming, jobs are disappearing, the climate is collapsing, and politics are being divided,” but they still have to adapt to a world powered by AI. “The question is not whether AI will shape the world. It will.” Schmidt said to jeers from the audience. “The question is, can you shape artificial intelligence?”
And at Glendale Community College, just two hours north in suburban Phoenix, students voiced disappointment and frustration after an AI-powered system that was supposed to announce the graduates who would walk the stage got hundreds of names wrong or skipped over.
But the Class of 2026’s hostile reaction to AI is not happening in a vacuum. The AI-related riot at this month’s graduation ceremony embodies a deeper generational resentment about coming of age in a decade marked by strained relationships and economic instability, said J. Israel Balderas, a lawyer and assistant professor of journalism at Elon University who focuses on free speech and AI.
“While these reactions may seem emotional and disproportionate on the surface, AI has arrived at a time when many young people are already questioning how technology has shaped their relationships, focus, mental health and even their sense of belonging,” he said. Inside higher education. “Add to this the disruption of AI, and there is a growing sense among young people that they are inheriting a system that they did not design and that they cannot fully control.”
complicated relationship
When this year’s graduating class arrives on campus in fall 2022, they have already spent half of their high school years dealing with the isolation and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, as soon as the pandemic began to subside, tech companies launched a flurry of generative AI products, predicting that such tools would soon eliminate the majority of entry-level white-collar jobs. In response, many universities have since partnered with technology companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google and invested significant funds to integrate AI tools into campus operations and classes in the name of preparing tomorrow’s AI-savvy workforce.
The inevitability of AI was also the message Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta delivered to Middle Tennessee State University graduates in his May 9 commencement speech.
“Streaming is rewriting the economy, social media is rewriting the discovery model, and while we’re sitting here, AI is rewriting production,” he said, to which the crowd booed in response. “Deal with it. Like I said, this is a tool. Listen now, or you can pay later.”
Despite the vitriol some college students hurled at Borchetta and other AI advocates who spoke at this year’s commencement ceremony, the data shows that students have a complex relationship with AI.
According to Inside higher educationAccording to ’s 2025 Student Voice Survey, 85% of college students said they use generative AI to assist with coursework, such as using it for brainstorming, research, and even generating entire research papers. But while generative and now agentic AI may make it easier for students to pass classes, or even cheat outright if they’re bold, it’s also fueled anxiety about their futures after graduation.
“Students are using AI, but they don’t trust it,” Balderas said. “As students graduate, talking about AI and the future of work and creativity gets on their nerves. They are gripped by fear.”
More than three years after generative AI became mainstream, the technology has upended a major that once seemed like a safe option for a well-paying career. From 2022 to 2025, employment of early career employees in “AI-exposed” fields such as software development decreased by 16% compared to employment of experienced employees in these roles. At the same time, the unemployment rate for recent university graduates reached 5.6% at the end of last year, while the unemployment rate for all workers was 4.2%.
These realities, combined with the continuing rise in the cost of living, make it difficult for many college students to embrace the idea of an AI-filled future with the kind of enthusiasm shown by this year’s wealthy, older commencement speakers.
A recent poll by education consulting group EAB found that half of students feel “worried” about the impact AI will have on their careers, with 10% feeling “depressed,” 32% “concerned,” and 31% feeling “nervous” or “anxious.” However, only 7% said they were “excited” and 13% said they were “optimistic.”
“Deeper fear”
But the dissatisfaction with AI expressed by students at this year’s graduation ceremonies extends beyond worries about losing out in the job market.
“When AI starts to appear in spaces that traditionally have emotional meaning, such as graduation ceremonies, the reaction will be greater than the specific event itself,” Balderas said, adding that he was not surprised by students’ reactions to some commencement speeches that focused on AI. “This taps into a deeper fear that while society has gotten very good at simulating human interaction, it has gotten worse at actually putting it into practice.”
But not every commencement speaker who dared mention AI made such vitriolic remarks. At Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, students praised CEO and publisher Ben Sherwood. daily beastfor championing the human experience as uniquely valuable.
“You will graduate into a world transformed by AI, where machines can now prepare essays, code, images, music, fears, strategies, and human conversations,” Sherwood told graduates. “But there’s one thing they can’t do. They can’t live a human life. Machines generate answers. You can live that answer yourself.”
