Transforming Business Education With AI

• To succeed in today’s workplace, students will need to develop both technical proficiency with AI tools and an ethical outlook on how to use them.
• Before they can teach students how to use AI in the workplace, faculty must gain practical AI skills themselves, as well as an understanding of the ways the technology is impacting industry.
• Business schools will be able to integrate AI into their programs if they secure leadership commitment, form a dedicated team, engage stakeholders, train faculty, and share best practices.

 
What if business schools could harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how students learn, collaborate, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings? What if, instead of simply reacting to this emerging technology, we could embrace it, using it to shape the future of business education in meaningful, impactful ways? But how can business schools begin to chart a path through this unknown landscape?

At the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, our journey toward AI-driven education began shortly after ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022. Within weeks, a handful of professors had found novel ways to integrate generative AI (GenAI) into their teaching.

In March 2024, under Dean Vijay Khatri’s leadership, we launched the Leeds AI Initiative to identify potential AI solutions across teaching, research, and operations. Soon after, we sent a representative to AACSB’s May 2024 AI Conference on Preparing Business Leaders, hosted by Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. At the conference, participants discussed industry needs, emerging AI trends, and notable efforts at peer institutions, which reinforced the idea that collaboration and knowledge-sharing would be vital to successful AI integration.

Building on insights from these varied efforts, the Leeds AI Initiative created a core group of faculty and staff and established three committees: AI in Teaching and Learning, AI in Research, and AI in Operations and Administration. Through these groups, we developed a framework that emphasizes both technical proficiency and broader principles of ethics and critical thinking. By focusing on responsible innovation, particularly in the classroom, we aim to equip students with the skills and mindsets they’ll need to navigate AI-driven workplaces successfully.

Ultimately, our goal is to foster forward-thinking problem-solvers who understand not just how to use AI, but also why ethical considerations matter. In a world increasingly defined by GenAI solutions, business schools have a responsibility to prepare students to lead responsibly, adapt swiftly, and shape the future of work.

Training the Trainers

The Leeds AI Initiative is driven by industry’s demand for graduates proficient in two critical areas: AI knowledge and critical thinking. Our goal is to show our students that AI can aid them in their critical thinking but can’t replace their own insights and observations.

As we developed our AI framework, we first took steps to ensure we were taking the right approach with our curriculum. To do this, we launched informal collaborations with leaders from KPMG and PwC to gain insights into how their firms, and the firms they serve, are adopting AI technologies.

These discussions provided us with a better understanding of the evolving role of AI in the accounting and professional services industries, which helped us ensure that our curriculum aligns with industry practices and expectations. Based on their input, we wanted to ensure that our students learned foundational skills such as crafting effective prompts that generate high-quality outputs and refine analytical thinking.

Unless professors educate students on structured and ethical ways to use AI, students may develop habits that hinder critical thinking.

Next, we focused on helping our faculty understand how to integrate AI into the curriculum. As Khatri says, “It’s not enough to add a course on AI; we first have to educate our faculty so that they can bring AI to life in the classroom.”

To that end, we developed faculty workshops that not only taught practical AI skills, but also allowed instructors to voice concerns and brainstorm innovative teaching approaches. We reinforced the urgency of integrating AI into the classroom by highlighting AI’s impact in industry, from boosting efficiency to improving decision-making.

In these workshops, we also made it clear that not addressing AI carries risks of its own. Many of our students have been using AI tools since high school, but often they’re misusing those tools. For instance, they’re relying on AI to complete entire assignments, which means they’re only minimally engaged with the learning process.

This way of employing AI contrasts sharply with the ideal of using it as a collaborative partner in learning. Without guidance, students may develop habits that hinder critical thinking and meaningful skill development. Therefore, there’s a pressing need for professors to educate students on structured and ethical ways to use AI.

Once professors started incorporating AI into their courses, they began to see that technology could support them in their teaching as well as it could support students in their learning. Professors initially found they could use AI to grade tests and other final projects, but they gradually shifted their emphasis to using AI to examine students’ underlying thought processes. By employing scalable AI tools, faculty now can provide individualized step-by-step feedback, which allows them to mentor students more effectively, even in larger class settings.

Integrating AI Across the Core

Over the past year, Leeds has taken a coordinated approach to incorporating GenAI into the core business classes that all first- and second-year students take. This initiative spans 14 courses and nearly 50 instructors. Currently, we have integrated AI into a majority of our core classes, and we aim to reach 100 percent of our core business classes by fall 2025.

We believe that when students encounter AI across multiple classes, they will become familiar with both its capabilities and its ethical challenges, and they will be well-equipped to use it effectively on the job once they graduate.

Students discover that AI is a partner rather than a substitute; it paves the way for deeper analysis and innovation without overshadowing original thought.

From the beginning, Leeds has emphasized integrity and accountability as we added AI to our programs. With this in mind, we have focused our learning objectives on four elements:

• Using GenAI responsibly for problem-solving.
• Considering the ethical dimensions of AI, such as bias and accountability.
• Using AI tools to communicate with both internal and external audiences.
• Conducting basic data analysis over AI platforms.

Leeds provides faculty with guidelines that outline ways students can use AI to support their learning. These guidelines are not prescriptive, but they offer instructors a framework that they can adapt to suit their specific teaching goals. Faculty then can create syllabi that make it clear when students can and can’t use AI during their courses. For instance, some faculty will encourage students to use AI in nongraded tasks so they can explore its strengths and limitations, while prohibiting students from using it on graded exams.

When students are first introduced to AI in the classroom, they usually begin with simpler tasks, such as brainstorming or refining their ideas. As they gain basic prompting skills, they progress to more advanced uses, such as building custom GPTs, analyzing data, and tackling more complex problems. Over time, this hands-on approach does not just boost their technical proficiency. It also sharpens their problem-solving skills and improves their critical thinking abilities.

Through this approach, students discover that AI can manage mundane tasks, but it cannot replace human insight or creativity. It is a partner rather than a substitute; it paves the way for deeper analysis and innovation without overshadowing original thought.

A student captured this balance perfectly by saying, “As we learned, AI is supposed to be a helper to us rather than a crutch. … We can still have individuality in our work.”

Another one commented, “I enjoy how this class has made me think of AI as an assistant. This has really helped me in other classes when I’m having trouble understanding a concept.”

Five Critical Steps

What have we learned so far? Based on our experience, we’ve identified five steps that other institutions might follow if they want to launch or refine their own AI initiatives:

Define the purpose and secure leadership commitment. Clearly articulate why active integration of AI matters to education—and the school. This is a call to leadership to set aside the fear of making a misstep and see that the true misstep is not doing anything at all.

Form a cross-functional core team. Assemble a group of two to four motivated and diverse faculty, staff, and administrators to guide the initiative. This team should have a mix of technical knowledge, educational expertise, and strategic vision to foster collaboration and sustain momentum.

Leaders must set aside the fear of making a misstep and see that the true misstep is not doing anything at all.

Engage stakeholders and emphasize ethics. Where possible, involve faculty, students, and industry partners early through forums, workshops, and collaborative discussions. Be sure to integrate ethical considerations into the discussions of how AI can be used in educational and workplace settings.

Empower faculty by providing training and tools. Develop faculty workshops to equip educators and staff with technical skills, ethical frameworks, and innovative pedagogical strategies. Highlight practical applications of AI in teaching and encourage interdisciplinary exploration. Even if some approaches don’t work out, attempting new approaches and sharing the results is better than doing nothing.

Iterate, evaluate, collaborate, and share. Treat AI integration as an evolving process. Conduct pilot projects, gather regular feedback, and refine approaches based on outcomes. Share lessons learned as well as best practices that have been identified by your institution and other organizations. Celebrate successes to build momentum and inspire broader adoption.

A Call to Action

As GenAI continues to evolve, we know our journey of integrating it into our programs is far from complete. At Leeds, we remain committed to refining our curriculum, sharing insights, and collaborating with fellow institutions to drive the purposeful adoption of AI in business education. Ultimately, our goal is not just to ride a trend, but to produce leaders who possess advanced technical skills and strong ethical compasses.

We invite other business schools to collaborate with us, whether by sharing best practices, co-developing pilot projects, or participating in inter-institutional workshops, so we can accelerate AI innovation for the benefit of students everywhere.