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According to Microsoft, 82 percent of leaders believe their employees need new skills to keep up with AI’s breakneck growth.
Chainarong Prasertthai/iStock/Getty Images Plus
“AI won’t replace your job, but another person who knows AI will.” As a professor who’s spent her career with one foot in academia and the other in industry, I’m here to tell you: There’s truth behind the statement, the hype is real, and it’s time for higher education to get onboard.
But don’t take my word for it. Last spring, we invited industry leaders from across the marketing, finance and consulting sectors to our campus. Each of them demonstrated how AI can accomplish, in minutes, what would traditionally take their first-year analysts a week.
If you think I’m exaggerating, consider this: 54 percent of companies have already implemented generative AI solutions, according to PWC. Microsoft reports that 82 percent of leaders believe their employees need new skills to keep up with AI’s breakneck growth. Consulting giant McKinsey expects 40 percent of its business this year to be AI-related. And yet, as business progresses in its AI adoption and redefines the very nature of work, academia is still having students hand-write computer code on examinations.
Higher education is not known for its adaptability. Curriculum updates that should take months drag out for years, bounced between committees, held hostage in bureaucratic processes. In a world where AI acumen is becoming a fundamental skill, many higher ed institutions are preparing students for a world that no longer exists, arming them with skills that may be obsolete before they even graduate. At American University’s Kogod School of Business, the opposite is happening.
Kogod’s Radical Approach
Rather than focusing on a select few students in typically STEM-related fields, we’re ensuring every single student—regardless of their major, interests or intended industry—will graduate with a holistic understanding of AI and be equipped to lead in a business world dominated by it. AI education at Kogod starts the moment students step on campus for student orientation; during that crucial first week, students receive their first taste of AI fundamentals, providing them the foundation to jump into our AI-infused curriculum.
Taking AI to the Classroom
As of this fall, Kogod students across all disciplines are being offered 20 new and reimagined classes that provide both the technical skills and the theoretical foundations necessary to successfully navigate the business landscape. A subset of courses focuses on AI in practice and includes deep immersion into the technical use of AI tools in real-world contexts. Another subset focuses on providing an arena for theoretical discussions around responsible AI, allowing students to explore and understand the inherent risks and ethical challenges associated with AI technology.
Importantly, we’re not just teaching students how to use AI tools—we’re teaching them to think critically about AI, evaluate its societal implications and leverage it strategically in any variety of business contexts.
A Road Map to Integrating AI
When we started our AI journey, our faculty and staff were excited about incorporating AI into their lessons and teaching practices—but most of them had no idea where to begin. How could we possibly achieve the expectation of an AI-literate student body if our own faculty and staff didn’t fully understand the technology themselves?
Our solution: investing heavily in faculty upskilling. We’ve appointed an AI instruction faculty fellow to organize regular AI training programs to ensure faculty stay up-to-date on the latest technological developments, business use cases and operational efficiencies happening constantly in this new AI world. Along the way, we’ve solidified our conviction that higher ed needs to move faster just to keep up—and that since we want to be ahead of the curve, we have to keep pace with the private sector’s speed and innovation. Here are four actions we’re taking, which we think our peers should be doing, too.
- Engaging with experts. One of the most important things we can do to prepare our students for the new workforce is to understand exactly how industry views and uses AI in different contexts. We’ve brought industry experts in the media, consulting and financial industries to do live demos of their AI solutions. Not only does seeing practical use cases of the technology in real time increase faculty engagement, it also allows us to learn how companies are considering ROI on these huge technological investments.
- Getting hands on the tools. Start small. Spend five minutes a day using an AI tool; maybe replace one Google search a day with one query to ChatGPT. See the results. As you get more comfortable, find the limitations of the tools you’re using to understand the implications for the classroom. The more comfortable you are with the tools, the more likely you will be to find ways to integrate them into your teaching pedagogy.
- Focusing on fundamentals. Even as a tech enthusiast, I find myself getting overwhelmed with all the new advancements in AI we see every day—new LLMs, new companies, new features, new use cases. The list can go on. Shiny object syndrome in AI is real. Instead of chasing the newest, hottest thing, focus on mastering fundamentals and gaining AI literacy skills that apply no matter the tools you use. Understand the value proposition of these AI use cases. You can even use pre-existing prompt libraries for your industry or use case.
- Building community. Learning is more fun when you do it with others. Every month, we host AI Second Friday coffee chats for faculty to discuss important updates in the AI landscape, share pedagogical methods, troubleshoot current challenges and more. In a casual and conversational environment, you all can learn and grow together.
Ready to Get on the Bandwagon?
The AI revolution is changing the world as we know it at insane speeds and high frequency. We’re not waiting for best practices to emerge. We’re actively shaping those best practices. We’re experimenting. We’re adapting. We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in higher education. And we’re preparing our students for the job market of tomorrow by putting the tools in our faculty’s hands.
