How Professional Curricula Shape Undergraduate Employability in the Generative AI Era: Evidence From Career Planning Documents

ABSTRACT

The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is significantly transforming the professional landscape, necessitating a reevaluation of how professional curricula foster undergraduate employability. While most existing studies rely on structured scales to explore linear causal relationships, this approach limits the ability to capture students' career readiness when navigating the technological disruptions introduced by GenAI. To fill this research gap, our study examines 36 undergraduate career planning documents as authentic evidence of students' career readiness. Utilising a data‐driven text mining approach, we uncover the underlying patterns of students' career strategies in the GenAI era. The research findings indicate the following: (1) Students' career readiness can be categorised into four typical adaptation profiles: goal‐oriented, experience‐driven, skill‐based and context‐anticipatory. (2) The formation of their career development intentions involves a comprehensive trade‐off among four core elements: career advancement, technological resources, process experience and practical context, reflecting the dynamic interplay between instrumental and value rationality. (3) To address the career uncertainties introduced by GenAI, students adopt two primary adaptation strategies based on varying regulatory foci: maximising skill utility and adjusting behavioural perceptions of future work. This study reveals the critical pathway through which professional curricula shape graduate employability, providing evidence‐based guidance for higher education policymakers and educators aiming to cultivate innovative professionals with both technological adaptability and professional resilience.