Several Boston-area colleges are overhauling their degree offerings around artificial intelligence this year, betting that teaching students to be what educators are calling “AI natives” will make them more competitive in an increasingly uncertain job market. This fall, Wentworth Institute of Technology is launching a new degree in applied AI. Northeastern University is going further still, rolling out two dozen new interdisciplinary majors that combine AI with fields ranging from business and biochemistry to neuroscience, chemical engineering, and philosophy.
Two more schools are following close behind. Starting in fall 2027, Endicott College will introduce a degree in AI implementation, and Suffolk University will add a “co-major” in applied AI that students can layer on top of most of the university’s existing undergraduate programs.
The Reasoning Behind the Push
According to Allan Glass, a business professor at Endicott who has been leading the rollout of the school’s new AI program, the goal isn’t to teach students to become AI researchers or engineers, but to graduate knowing how to actually use the technology, rather than worrying it will replace their entry-level prospects. That framing reflects a deliberate design choice these schools are making: rather than trying to teach a specific set of AI tools that will likely be outdated within a few years, the new majors emphasize adaptable skills and judgment about when and how to apply AI, since the underlying technology is evolving on a timescale of weeks rather than years.
Schools are also pointing to early success stories elsewhere. MIT’s “Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making” major, launched in 2022, has become the second-most-popular program at the university, giving other institutions a template to point to as they justify the investment in new AI-focused curricula.
Real Anxiety Is Driving the Demand
This isn’t a curriculum change happening in a vacuum. National survey data shows just how present AI already is in students’ daily academic and career calculations. A Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey of nearly 4,000 college students, published in April 2026, found that 57% of US undergraduates use AI tools daily or weekly in their coursework, even though 53% say their own institution discourages or outright prohibits it — a striking gap between policy and practice. A related Lumina-Gallup study from May 2026 found that 47% of enrolled students have considered changing their major specifically because of AI automation concerns, with technology majors reporting the highest reconsideration rate of any field, at 70%.
That anxiety lines up with separate labor market data showing recent college graduates are currently facing one of the weakest entry-level job markets in years, as employers increasingly favor candidates who already have experience over those straight out of school.
Not Everyone on Campus Is on Board
The rollout hasn’t been universally welcomed. At Suffolk, a student-launched petition opposing the school’s new AI curriculum plan had gathered more than 1,200 signatures as of mid-August 2026. The pushback is unfolding alongside a separate, contentious set of changes to Massachusetts degree structures: in June 2026, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved pilot proposals allowing Suffolk and Merrimack College to offer shortened bachelor’s degrees requiring fewer than 120 credits, a move the Massachusetts Teachers Association has objected to over concerns about academic rigor.
Some of the friction appears to stem from how quickly these changes are being introduced, layered on top of existing degree requirements, rather than opposition to teaching AI skills in principle. Students and faculty at multiple schools have raised questions about whether four-year programs can realistically stay current with a technology that changes meaningfully every few weeks, and whether the rush to add AI credentials risks diluting the depth of a student’s underlying field of study.
What Students Should Keep in Mind
For current students weighing whether to pursue one of these new AI-focused majors, minors, or co-majors, it’s worth treating “AI native” credentials as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, strong fundamentals in a core discipline — the schools launching these programs are explicitly designing them as interdisciplinary add-ons rather than standalone technical degrees, for that exact reason. Given how new and fast-changing this space is, students should also look closely at how a specific program is structured before enrolling, since a two-dozen-major rollout like Northeastern’s will likely vary considerably in depth and rigor from one track to the next.
