Generations College Integrates AI Into Programming
AI has already changed the workforce. The question is whether colleges will change with it, and today that’s not happening quickly enough. A Digital Education Council global survey of more than 45,000 students and faculty found that 88% of students already use AI in their learning, but only 15% say it is integrated into many of their courses. Our students are not waiting for permission or guidance. Instead, they are teaching themselves, unevenly, while we deliberate.
AI has for too long been treated as a computer science topic, which is no longer sufficient as it becomes a foundational workplace skill. An accountant will use AI to analyze financial trends. A marketer will use it to better understand customers. An entrepreneur will use it to build products faster. Students do not need to become AI engineers. They need to use AI responsibly, strategically and ethically within their chosen fields. We are preparing students to direct AI rather than compete with it.
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That is the approach we have taken at Generations College. When we launched Chicago’s first two-year, associate-level Business + AI degree, our goal was to prepare business professionals to lead in an AI economy. In this program, students build skills in prompt engineering, workflow automation, AI ethics and practical business applications.
The results were immediate. During our pilot with Vet Tix, one student nearly withdrew because the business she was building using the tools she was learning each week in class grew faster than she could manage. She was struggling because the program was working. She finished the course.
We are already updating that curriculum in our second full semester. Academic cycles measure change in years; AI measures it in months. Colleges cannot afford to have a curriculum that does not keep pace as technology evolves.
This fall, we will introduce AI-powered avatars to deliver selected foundational lectures, and AI tutors will support students around the clock because learning should not stop when class ends. However, AI is not replacing professors. The best professors are mentors and guides. When technology carries the routine content, faculty have more time for the work where human connection matters most: mentorship, creativity and problem-solving.
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None of this happened because a consultant recommended it. It happened because I invested in my own AI proficiency first. A leader cannot credibly ask an institution to embrace what she herself refuses to touch. The leader who fears what is new will eventually be led by people who do not.
The most overlooked opportunity AI creates is entrepreneurship. Launching a company once required capital, expertise and a team. Today, a student with an idea can research markets, build a brand and reach customers in an afternoon. That is why Generations College introduced an Entrepreneurial Studies degree alongside our Business + AI program. The future workforce will both compete for the jobs that exist and create the ones that do not.
Our responsibility is preparing students to adapt, innovate and lead through changes we cannot yet predict. The colleges that succeed will be the ones willing to rethink education itself, not the ones that adopt the most tools. Innovation is how we stay true to our missions.
