The 2025 Computing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey of U.S. and Canadian computing units, the latest edition available as of October 2026, found standalone artificial intelligence degrees still uncommon: 16 of 135 reporting units housed a bachelor's AI program, and 4 of 136 housed a doctoral one. Most AI teaching and research happens inside broader computer science degrees, though 25 units said a bachelor's AI program was being planned. These counts record how programs are organized and say nothing about how much AI matters to the field.
Key takeaways
- The Taulbee Survey 2025 is the newest edition found on the CRA site as of October 2026, and it reached 141 of 226 invited units, 133 in the United States and 8 in Canada.
- Standalone AI programs were housed in 11.9 percent of units at the bachelor's level, 15.4 percent at the master's level, and 2.9 percent at the doctoral level.
- Another 25 units (18.5 percent) reported a bachelor's AI program in planning.
- CRA added these AI questions to understand the direction computing programs are taking.
- Doctoral degree production reached a record 1,351 CS doctorates in 2025.
What the survey is
The Taulbee Survey is run by the Computing Research Association (CRA) each year; the 2025 report is its 55th annual edition. It collects data from academic computing units in the United States and Canada, mostly departments and some colleges or schools of computing or information. Data collection ran from October 2025 into February 2026, and degree production figures refer to the 2024-25 academic year. A response rate of 62.3 percent means about four in 10 invited units are absent, and the responding sample is concentrated among research universities, so the numbers describe those units rather than every college.
Where AI programs stand by degree level
The CRA's AI and Data Science section introduced questions about whether units are creating standalone AI programs and whether they include the resulting degrees in their Taulbee counts. The table gives the 2025 answers for AI.
| Answer | Bachelor's (135 units) | Master's (136 units) | Doctoral (136 units) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes, housed in the unit | 16 (11.9%) | 21 (15.4%) | 4 (2.9%) |
| Yes, interdisciplinary collaborative | 2 (1.5%) | 6 (4.4%) | 2 (1.5%) |
| No, but in planning | 25 (18.5%) | 19 (14.0%) | 5 (3.7%) |
| No | 77 (57.0%) | 79 (58.1%) | 119 (87.5%) |
| Other | 14 (10.4%) | 10 (7.4%) | 6 (4.4%) |
The rows for "one at the institution, unit not involved" are one unit each at the bachelor's and master's levels and are left out of the table, so columns do not sum exactly to the totals.
What a "No" does and does not mean
A unit answering "No" has no standalone AI program in that unit. It can still teach machine learning, natural language processing, vision, and robotics courses inside its computer science degree, and many AI researchers hold faculty posts there. The survey does not count courses or faculty topics in this section, so it cannot say how much AI content computer science students actually take. The doctoral figure of 119 "No" answers is just as silent on how many doctoral students work on AI topics.
Reporting is incomplete for the programs that exist
Among units that said they have a standalone AI program, not all include its degrees in their Taulbee numbers. The survey recorded that 22 of 58 units with a bachelor's program (37.9 percent), 25 of 59 with a master's program (42.4 percent), and 9 of 53 with a doctoral program (17.0 percent) did so. This means national degree counts for "computer science" may be missing graduates of AI-titled programs, depending on how each institution classifies them. Any trend line built on those counts should be read with that gap in mind.
The wider picture the same report gives
Surrounding figures put the AI numbers in context. CS doctorates awarded rose to a record 1,351 in 2025, a 16.1 percent increase from 2024 within the longitudinal group of units. The report ties recent degree growth to large cohorts admitted four to five years earlier, and it describes new enrollment as contracting at every level. Because of that lag, record graduate counts do not show current demand, and nothing in the retrieved sections attributes the changes to AI. CRA had not posted a later edition when this page was checked, and the site gives no date for the next one.
FAQ
Is artificial intelligence a part of computer science?
In academic practice it sits inside computing, and the Taulbee data show that most units deliver AI through broader degrees rather than separate AI programs. The survey does not test the question directly.
Why do the 2025 numbers matter if AI degrees are rare?
They mark an early point in a change, and as of October 2026 they are the newest figures published. A fifth of units reported planning a bachelor's program, and the CRA added the AI questions to follow where computing programs are heading.
Do the figures cover all colleges?
No. They cover 141 responding units, mostly at research universities, and Canada contributes eight of them.
Does a standalone AI degree mean better preparation?
The survey makes no such claim. It records whether programs exist, not graduate outcomes or quality.
Related reading
- AI compared with computer science
- Whether AI counts as a computer
- Institutions with AI and data science programs
- AI and data science side by side
More in AI Basics.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- AI and Data Science Programs, Taulbee Survey 2025, Computing Research Association, 2026
- Methods and Sample, Taulbee Survey 2025, Computing Research Association, 2026
- Enrollment and Degree Production Overview, Taulbee Survey 2025, Computing Research Association, 2026
- Conclusion, Taulbee Survey 2025, Computing Research Association, 2026