The impact of AI anxiety on career decisions of college students

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.