This article was contributed by Jenny Bingham, M.Ed., External Program and Communications, and Dr. Judith Gebauer, Professor of Management Information Systems within CSB.

Everyone has heard about it, knows some or a lot about it, and is exposed to it daily: AI.  Artificial Intelligence is now present in every type of business, including the business of college and higher education. AI-literacy is increasingly expected from CSB graduates by employers and the society at large. While AI presents substantial opportunities, the technology also bears important caveats and challenges to classroom activities and IT policies that warrant attention. For faculty and students, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the near constant deluge of AI-related news, swiftly emerging tools and developments, and the rapidly growing pool of early case studies.

To keep faculty up-to-speed and to offer a solid starting point to develop AI-literacy, the Cameron School of Business held its first “Exploring AI: Faculty Seminar” on May 14, 2024. Throughout the day-long, interactive seminar, about 70 CSB faculty explored and discussed the use of AI in teaching, research, and business practice.

Over twenty speakers from the UNCW-community and industry shared their rich experiences and covered a variety of topics related to: 

• AI – What is it?, including a high-level overview of the underlying technology and recent developments as well as information about the tools that are available to CSB faculty and the policies that apply to their use.
• AI in Teaching, including a lively discussion about the use of AI in our courses, AI-based assignments, classroom policies, and the multifaceted issue of AI-related ethics.
• AI In Research, including information about resources that are available to faculty to support research activities (e.g,. from the library) and the tricky issue of AI-related copyrights.
• Case studies and experiences of AI use in industry, which featured breakout sessions on the use of AI in Accounting with speakers from FORVIS, Deloitte, and BDO, Cybersecurity with speakers from UNCW, Finance/Banking with a speaker from Cascading AI, HR/Project Management/Entrepreneurship with speakers from Perpeta, Vantaca, and Campbell University, Information Systems/Business Analytics/Logistics with speakers from True IP Solutions, ThermoFisher/PPD, and Megacorp Logistics, and Sales/Marketing/CRM with speakers from Salesforce and Bryant University.