Abstract
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped the employment market, triggering widespread anxiety among college students about their future careers and posing a potential threat to their career decisions. Grounded in Career Construction Theory, this study investigated the impact mechanism of AI anxiety on career decisions among 315 Chinese college students, utilising a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling (SEM). The analysis specifically examined the mediating role of career adaptability and the moderating role of self-efficacy. The results indicated that AI anxiety not only directly and negatively predicted career decisions but also exerted an adverse indirect effect by undermining career adaptability, with this mediating effect accounting for 63.35% of the total effect. However, the moderating effect of self-efficacy was insignificant, indicating limited buffering capacity. These findings suggest that higher education institutions should promote outcome-based education (OBE) reforms, enhance students’ career adaptability by universalising AI literacy and career planning courses, and deepen industry-education integration. Such measures can help students make more confident and clear-sighted career decisions in the AI era.
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The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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ND: Writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. LL and GL: Writing – original draft. HC: Writing – review & editing.
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This research was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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All participants involved in this study were fully informed about the research’s purpose, procedures, and potential risks and benefits. Each participant provided explicit consent before their involvement. They were assured of their right to withdraw from the study without any consequences. The anonymity and confidentiality of their responses were guaranteed, with no personal identifiers linked to the data collected. Written consent was obtained from each participant, ensuring that they agreed to the terms of participation and the use of their data for research purposes.
Ethical approval
This study was approved by both the Ethics Committee of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University and the Ethics Review Committee of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and national ethical guidelines for research involving human participants.
Approval ID: MCU 8007R.627/YJMU-EC-2025-022202.
Date of approval: 26 October 2024/22 February 2025.
Note: The study commenced only after the above ethical approval was granted. Post-hoc local approval was obtained on 22 February 2025 to comply with journal requirements.
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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the commencement of data collection.
Consent procedure: Participants received an information sheet detailing the study’s aims, methods, risks, benefits, and data handling procedures. Participants then signed a consent form.
Dates of consent collection: 20–30 November 2024.
A scanned copy of the IRB approval letter and the blank informed-consent form are attached.
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Duan, N., Li, L., Lin, G. et al. The impact of AI anxiety on career decisions of college students. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37648-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37648-y
