Degrees in Transition: How AI Is Changing the Value of Social Sciences Majors

13-05-2025 10:30 HKT

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the global job landscape. According to reports from PWC, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and the World Economic Forum, by 2050, AI could influence 26% of global GDP. Up to 30% of current jobs could be automated by 2030, and 50% by 2045. 60% of current jobs will require significant adaptation, where early adopters could potentially enjoy 40% higher income.

We are decades into the AI revolution and are now in the midst of the parabolic phase. Seismic changes in job nature are happening, with wage trends reflecting the supply and demand shift of required skills.

This new data and trajectory suggest students can no longer afford to choose majors without considering i) the changes from the impact of AI and technology, ii) the job nature and function humans will play, and more importantly iii) the resulting future salary prospects.

Declining Value: Majors Facing Salary Pressure

A recent Newsweek report highlights that some of the most popular majors in the past are seeing declining starting salaries. For instance:

Communications majors saw a 3% drop year-over-year
Social Sciences fell by 3.6% year-over-year.

Another recent article from CNBC discusses the worst-paying majors showing their median annual incomes, with data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York :

Foreign Language: US$40,000
General Social Sciences: US$41,000
Performing Arts, Anthropology, Early Childhood Education, Social Sciences, Theology + Religion: US$42,000
Note: Overall US Median wage is US$48,060. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

AI’s impact on jobs is uneven but accelerating. Repetitive, rules-based roles - such as data entry and basic customer service - are already being automated by tools like chatbots and AI agents. AI platforms like Harvey AI (inspiration from Suits?) and CoCounsel AI now draft legal documents, and handle paralegal & legal research work. While high-level judgment roles will endure longer, the pressure is mounting on early-career jobs that were once seen as safe entry points into professional fields.

Case Study: Communications Degree

The communications major provides a useful case study in this trend. Once a highly popular choice for students interested in media, public relations, and corporate communication, the degree is facing wage stagnation and declining demand. Experts point to several reasons:

Graduates Oversupply: Communications programs have grown faster than the market’s absorption capacity.
Content Commoditization: AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy.ai now automate routine writing, social media management, and customer engagement — once staple entry-level jobs for communications majors.
Decreased Value-Add: Employers are increasingly seeking specialized digital marketing, SEO, and data analytics skills — areas that general communications degrees often do not emphasize enough.

What else are the experts saying? From a recent Newsweek article: Newsweek article

HR consultant Bryan Driscoll: “Salaries for comms majors are decreasing because employers think they can get away with it. It’s that simple. Employers also think they can replace these workers with AI. There’s a growing fantasy that AI can handle comms work. Why pay a skilled professional to write, strategize, and connect with real people when you can prompt an algorithm and call it a day?”

Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin: “The decrease in average starting salaries for communications graduates reflects a few factors plaguing the job market at the moment. Layoffs as employers start to scale back tend to hit jobs in the communications area first, as it’s normally a sector businesses feel like they can do more with less... The worst part for new graduates is it comes at a time when many are struggling financially with higher costs across the board, and jobs paying less doesn’t soften the blow of those increasing expenses.”

Together, these trends point to a troubling reality: communications graduates are entering a saturated job market with shrinking opportunities and pay, just as AI accelerates the automation of their core skill set. Without specialized digital or analytical expertise, many risk being left behind in a rapidly evolving landscape.