When ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, it sent shockwaves through the business world.
As companies around the world continue to grapple with how to use artificial intelligence in their day-to-day operations, students from all majors in the Marquette College of Business Administration are learning to harness the technology. And beginning this semester, a new AI for All course is integrated into the college-wide business curriculum, providing undergraduates a critical overview of AI technology and a primer on how it can help drive innovation in business.
The design of the new course was a joint effort involving multiple faculty members from across the college. “We made it a comprehensive course,” says Dr. Joe Wall, Donald F. Flynn and Beverly L. Flynn Chair of Accounting Ethics and Disruptive Technologies. “It doesn’t matter what a business student’s major or discipline is; businesses can be assured that if they hire a Marquette graduate, [our students] have the basics of this cutting edge of technology.”
“Businesses can be assured that if they hire a Marquette graduate, [our students] have the basics of this cutting edge of technology.”
Joe Wall, chair of accounting ethics and disruptive technologies
AI for All is taught in five modules that cover applied AI and data; generative AI and large language models, or LLMs; generating code for and with AI; data science automation for business; and ethical implications of AI in the business world. The modular structure allows instructors to be nimble and update the course regularly — a necessity, given the rapid rate of change in AI technology and its uses across industries.
AI for All will be a requirement for every first-year student in the College of Business Administration starting this coming fall. Dr. Terence Ow, professor of information systems and analytics and WIPFLI Fellow in Artificial Intelligence, emphasizes the value of students taking the course early in their time at Marquette. “The course prepares students to dive deeper into the world of AI and leverage/augment their AI knowledge across the majors they are interested since AI will be infused across many business functions. Students can bring additional AI insights or responsible use principles and interesting conversation points to the future courses they take.”
Exploring AI’s potential — and thinking critically about its shortcomings
Students from every business major have already been exploring AI’s potential and creating their own AI tools. In Dr. Brian Spaid’s digital marketing classes, students use generative AI to assist in creating marketing personas, which are profiles of a company’s ideal customer. “The fact of the matter is, when students go out into the marketplace, they’re more likely than not going to be asked to use some of these tools,” says Spaid, department chair and associate professor of marketing. “That doesn’t mean that I expect them to be reliant on these technologies, but that they have some exposure to it and that they understand the uses and also the limitations.”
AI’s shortcomings include bias and hallucinations, which are “a byproduct of the AI wanting to sound right, not necessarily be right,” Spaid explains. LLMs work similarly to predictive text messaging by plugging in words the AI calculates as a good fit, but that may not make sense in context. At Marquette, students are learning not just how to prompt AI for information and results, but also how to evaluate AI-generated material and parse the good from the bad.
“The output from these systems should always be a starting point,” Spaid says. “It should never be the final output.”
Assessing AI output is a skill that students will rely on in the workplace, and sharpening that skill begins with the fundamentals of their business education, Ow says, “If you have some understanding of the basics of business, the basics of anything including AI, you can say, okay, something is not right with this result. Why is it behaving this way now?”
Learning preliminary programming and code
In AI for All, students also learn the basics of coding. “By breaking down how AI works, students are taking a look under the hood of the technology to have a better grasp on using AI as a tool,” says Jeremy Lee, Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Analytics. “This will enable students to understand and be cautious of potential bias and hallucinations in the outputs and make necessary modifications accordingly – rather than treat AI as a black box.”
“Learning a programming language is not just learning a programming language; you’re also learning about problem-solving skills,” says Dr. April Song, assistant professor of information systems and analytics and WIPFLI Fellow in Artificial Intelligence. “That skill can be transferred to all levels of your life. It’s beyond just a programming language.”
The aim of AI for All isn’t for all students to gain the technical prowess to write advanced code or become data engineers. Every business student at Marquette will leave with a deeper understanding of the technology and with hands-on experience that will help them wield AI effectively and responsibly on the job.
“We are not teaching business students to be technicians,” Ow says. “We have to teach them how to use this tool to help them make decisions.”
This unique combination of decision-making expertise and hands-on AI experience gives Marquette students a distinct advantage as they enter the workforce. “These are the skills that employers don’t even realize they need yet,” says Dr. Badar Al Lawati, program director for business analytics. “Our goal is to ensure that every Marquette College of Business student is highly tech-enabled, setting them apart from graduates of other universities. By integrating AI into their skillset, our students bring a fresh, innovative perspective to their careers—one that challenges conventional thinking in their fields and drives real impact.”
