Colleges aim to 'AI proof' degrees with new majors - The Boston Globe

As employers seek more workers fluent in new technology and as recent graduates face the weakest job market in years, several colleges in Massachusetts say they have a solution: degree programs in artificial intelligence. The schools, from small liberal arts colleges to research institutions, are introducing majors that focus on teaching students to be “AI natives,” who graduate knowing how to use the technology rather than worrying it might replace their entry-level prospects. This fall at Wentworth Institute of Technology, students can enroll in a degree in applied AI. At Northeastern University, two dozen new interdisciplinary majors will combine AI with subjects ranging from business to biochemistry. And starting in fall 2027, Endicott College and Suffolk University will introduce degrees in AI implementation and a “co-major” in applied AI, respectively. As chatbots have become commonplace in the classroom and universities grapple with acceptable use and ethical guidelines, the new degrees in AI hope to follow the success at schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since it launched in 2022, the major in “Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making” has become the second-most-popular program at the research institution. In designing the new majors, Massachusetts schools confronted the same question: How do you teach relevant skills in four years in a field that is changing every four weeks? The answer comes through a focus on talent, rather than the technology, according to Allan Glass, a business professor at Endicott. “With this revolution of large language models, students that are graduating today have to figure out how to be good managers,” Glass said. “They have to figure out how the data is informing their decisions, and they have to figure out what this new capability of artificial intelligence is.” The introduction of AI degrees has been a rapid development across the country over the last year alone. According to federal data analyzed by the Computing Research Association, only four schools reported offering a degree in AI in 2020. Today, researchers at Northeastern estimate that students can major in AI at 79 institutions, while more than 100 schools have minors or concentrations. Charles Fadel, founder of the Boston-based nonprofit the Center for Curriculum Redesign, has studied how and what students should learn about AI. With new degree programs, he said, universities are trying to respond to the rapid changes in technology, which will only benefit students with critical skills as they look to enter the workforce. “It behooves everybody to be very fluent with how to work with it. It doesn’t matter which discipline,” Fadel said. “It makes sense that whether it’s a business school or a computer science degree that you’d need to learn how to use it, and in some cases how to design it.” But the rollout of these new programs has not been so positive at all schools. After Suffolk announced its plans recently, a student launched an online petition urging the school to steer its curriculum changes elsewhere. The Suffolk co-major will be offered alongside the majority of existing undergraduate programs. The interdisciplinary degree is intended to teach students how AI is going to be applied to their specific field of interest, said Andrew Perlman, the vice president for academic innovation at Suffolk. The curriculum also requires core courses in AI ethics, policy, and regulation, with the hope that students will be “informed about the way AI is changing the world for both good and for bad,” said Perlman. The petition, which accumulated more than 1,200 signatures in two days, asks the university to “support the needs of students, and a more sustainable future that doesn’t rely on artificial intelligence.” “By all means, this is not for everyone, and it’s one of the reasons why it’s an optional path,” Perlman said. Endicott, a small liberal arts college in Beverly, is introducing courses in AI with the same approach as its other flagship programs like business management, said Bryan Cain, the school’s president. The new degree is designed to have a strong focus on workforce development, with a required internship, along with key tenets of a liberal arts education — critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and effective communication. Last year, Glass said, a study from researchers at MIT reinforced the need for Endicott to offer a new degree with a focus on workplace development. Based on an analysis of 300 public AI initiatives from businesses, researchers found that 95 percent of organizations did not get a return on their investment after introducing new AI tools. The report also found that most businesses were quick to pilot the new technology but few changed their workflow to meaningfully integrate it. Companies were eager to use new technology but simply did not know how to do it. With a degree in AI implementation, Endicott hopes to train students who could become product managers, helping companies understand what tools are available and the most effective way to use them within an existing business model. “You’re now managing AI rather than competing with AI,” said Cain. At Wentworth, Mike Farmer, the dean of the school of computing and data science, said that the university has repeatedly seen AI as a necessary skill in job applications. With the Fenway school’s degree in applied AI, Farmer hopes that students can become fluent in using technology to meet the needs of a particular industry. The Wentworth degree will have a set of core classes for students to take — math, programming, ethics, and “responsible use of AI” — alongside a specialized “domain.” Students can choose to focus on life sciences, architecture, or cybersecurity. “There are going to be people in various industries that need to use AI and we want to be the school that develops a program that teaches them that specific thing,” Farmer said. Last year, Northeastern had 1,500 undergraduates complete an AI co-op, at companies ranging from Amazon Robotics to Wayfair. Sam Iannone, a rising senior at Northeastern, planned to graduate next year with a degree in product innovation from the business school. After completing two co-ops at Whoop in Boston and an internship this summer at Google DeepMind, the arm of Google behind its AI assistant Gemini, he plans to add a minor in “interdisciplinary AI” to his course load. At Whoop, Iannone said he used AI tools to help streamline day-to-day tasks, turning a morning report on inventory management from an hours-long assignment into an automated email. “As an intern, the best way to differentiate myself and have success in the workplace and be a strong employee was being the new guy who could come in, see this outside process, and use an AI tool to make it better in some way,” Iannone said. These co-op experiences have helped inform Northeastern’s curriculum offerings in real time, according to Ken Henderson, the university’s chancellor. “The design here is for our students to become what we term ‘AI orchestrators,’ rather than than passive users of the technology,” Henderson said. Northeastern is working to integrate AI into most of the classroom experience for undergraduates. But specific degrees, like a bachelor’s of science in AI, allows them to study the specific design, development, and application of the new technology. Starting this fall, two dozen interdisciplinary majors will broaden that scope to all industries. Behavioral neuroscience students can study neural circuits with integrated AI tools. A combined degree in chemical engineering and AI boasts career prospects as an engineer in pharmaceuticals. And for philosophers, a joint degree in philosophy and AI can set students up to become an ethics researcher. “It’s not that AI is necessarily replacing jobs,” said Henderson. “What’s replacing jobs is individuals who have AI skills.” Michaela Towfighi can be reached at michaela.towfighi@globe.com . Follow her on X @michaelatowfghi .