• Dr Ritesh Kumar Jain
• Shashank Prajapat
• Ravi Paliwal
• Avinash Rai

Choosing the right career has become more difficult due to the rapid growth of new technologies and job roles. Many students and young professionals are unsure about which career fits them best. To help solve this, we developed NEXTSTEP-AI – a smart chatbot that gives career advice based on each person’s interests, abilities, and goals. This system uses artificial intelligence and language understanding to talk with users, understand what they like and are good at, and then suggest suitable career and education options. It connects to updated career information, skill trends, and study programs to give guidance that’s useful and personal. This paper explains how the system works, how it was built, its key features, and how it can make career planning easier and smarter for today’s youth.

Career guidance, AI chatbot, personalized career advice, NLP, education planning, job market trends.

"NEXTSTEP-AI: An AI-Powered Personalized Career Guidance Chatbot Using NLP, Machine Learning and Blockchain", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 6, page no.514-520, June-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRGW06084.pdf

"NEXTSTEP-AI: An AI-Powered Personalized Career Guidance Chatbot Using NLP, Machine Learning and Blockchain", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 6, page no. pp514-520, June-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRGW06084.pdf