Colleges race to ready students for the AI workplace

The rise of generative AI in the workplace and students’ demands for more hirable talents are driving schools to revamp courses and add specialized degrees at speeds rarely seen in higher education. Schools are even going so far as to emphasize that all undergraduates get a taste of the tech, teaching them how to use AI in a given field—as well as its failings and unethical applications.

The schools are eager to prove their relevance as a path to well-paying jobs as more Americans question the value of a college degree. The students believe the AI skills could make the difference between getting a job and not.

Jake Golden, a rising junior at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, avoided ChatGPT after OpenAI launched it in 2022. He watched classmates use it to write essays and he grew concerned about its potential to sap creativity.

At a marketing internship the following summer, however, his boss asked him to use ChatGPT to draft crowdfunding pitches and mimic previous campaigns.

“If I don’t learn AI, it’s going to take over everything around me and I’m going to have no idea what’s happening," he recalled thinking.

When Golden returned to campus in fall 2023, Emory launched its AI minor, which covers applications in areas such as psychology, economics and English. He immediately enrolled in the introductory courses and added the program to his business degree.

Employer demand

On Handshake, a job-search platform for college students, the share of job descriptions that mention ChatGPT and other generative-AI tools has tripled in the past year. While about one-quarter of those roles are tech-related, 16% are in marketing and 12% are in art and media.

“There’s a frantic call for anybody who has these skills," said David Reed, associate provost for strategic initiatives at the University of Florida.

The state school ramped up its AI program starting in 2020, spurred in part by a $70 million gift from alum Chris Malachowsky, who co-founded the AI-focused chip giant Nvidia. It now offers around 200 AI classes reaching nearly 12,000 students each semester. It has a three-course certificate program giving priority to real-world use of AI.

“I knew that I would stand out a little more to employers with these different AI tools," said Catalina Vaca, a rising junior business management major at UF.

It is too early to tell if this has been helping students clinch jobs they otherwise wouldn’t. “We’ve just been running at full speed," Reed said. “We’ve not had time to evaluate yet."

‘Not a choice’

Students now expect professors to teach them how to incorporate generative AI into their careers. Cornell University, for example, is designing an AI and Society minor, which faculty anticipate will prepare students to fill the AI talent gap in both the public and private sectors.

The University of Southern California rolled out its AI for Business major last year, a joint degree between the business and engineering schools. In its first year, the major received 713 applications from incoming freshmen for fewer than 50 spots. This year, over 1,000 students applied.

“Students and parents see that this is going to change the labor market in unprecedented ways," said Kimon Drakopoulos, an associate professor of data sciences and operations and the program’s inaugural director. “So it’s more of an existential issue to adapt to this and be able to cater. It’s not a choice."

Educators say their main concern is being able to keep up with the technology’s breakneck growth. At most schools, it can take years for committees to approve new academic programs.

“Take a two-week vacation and you might be behind," said Kavita Bala, dean of Cornell’s College of Computing and Information Science.

The Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey will require all students, regardless of their major, to take three semesterlong Frontiers of Technology courses. They can pick from five options: AI and machine learning, data science and analytics, biotechnology, sustainability and quantum technology.

“Do universities have a responsibility to teach these skills that are in vogue today but may be out of fashion 10 years from now?" said President Nariman Farvardin. “They do not." Instead, colleges have a “responsibility to teach students to learn for life," he said.

The new Microsoft Office

AI literacy is the modern equivalent of typing in the 1970s and ’80s, a universal requirement for all students going into all fields of work, said Joseph Fuller, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School who researches the future of work. Job seekers should demonstrate that they can interact with a tool like ChatGPT and get the most accurate and thorough results, he said. And students should also be able to identify when AI is wrong.

Valerie Capers Workman, chief talent engagement officer at Handshake, said generative AI is the new Microsoft Office. “The skill set will be ubiquitous 10 years from now, but in the next two to five years, it’s going to be a major asset in getting recruited," she said.

She said some employers have started administering prompt-engineering assessments, which evaluate how well you can instruct generative-AI models to complete a task, during the hiring process.

When Preston Doll, a rising senior at USC studying business and minoring in AI, applied to investment banking internships this past year, he made sure his résumé highlighted his AI coursework.

Doll isn’t sure if the AI experience helped him land his summer analyst position, but it is coming in handy: His company uses CreditAI, a generative-AI tool that can answer queries about companies’ credit analytics.

“Wherever my career takes me, I’ll be using AI to leverage my work, my speed, my accuracy," Doll said. “Just anything to get better at the job."

Write to Milla Surjadi at Milla.Surjadi@wsj.com