Business schools facilitate their resistance to AI

The beginnings of the OpenAi Chatgpt sparked a wave of experimentation with artificial intelligence in commercial education and, more than two years, technology reshapes how knowledge is delivered and absorbed.

The challenges nevertheless persist: the adoption is uneven, the ethical concerns persist and the role of human instructors continues to evolve, even with regard to its place in the program.

But at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto, teachers Joshua Gans and Kevin Bryan saw the opportunity to rationalize the support of students. After the launch of Chatgpt at the end of 2022, Gans and Bryan developed a basic AI assistant and trained it on their conference equipment. They were impressed by his precision.

“The quality of the answers has surprised us,” recalls Gans. Encouraged by its success, they introduced the TA tool all day to a class of 300 students. During a 12 -week semester, AI aligned 12,000 requests.

“The bot can respond instantly, instead that students must wait for an answer,” explains Gans. “And they could ask questions that could be embarrassing in front of a room full of people.”

What started as a small driver in Rotman has now been adopted by around 100 universities and business schools, known as Gans, including some of the main providers of online MBA programs. The response of the education faculty, known as Gans, was extremely positive.

“There is no resistance,” he said, some even funding it. At $ 2 per student, the cost is minimal, and it only takes a few minutes to settle, he adds. Professors can download their course equipment, allowing AI to provide answers adapted to their study program.

All day long, you are an example of the growing role of AI in online education. Business schools integrate educational assistants fueled by AI, automated feedback systems and IA -based classification tools to improve learning and rationalize evaluation.

Leah Belsky, vice-president of education in Openai, indicates rapid academic adoption, with one in three American students using the chatbot today. “One of the most powerful AI applications is to advance educational results,” she says. “It can make education more personalized,” just in time “and engaging.”

But Belsky adds that the literacy of AI is, simultaneously, an urgent concern. “The AI ​​could exacerbate inequalities if only some people know how to use it powerfully while others do not do it,” she said. To fill this gap, she suggests that universities should integrate AI into teaching, offering teachers and students the skills necessary to make the most of these tools.

However, this is delivered with a price. “The elephant in the room is the cost,” explains Matt Robb, partner and leader of education at the Deloitte Council. “The implementation and maintenance of these systems requires significant investments.”

In online education, where major classes can leave students waiting a little comments, technology offers a way to fill the gap. “Students sometimes express valid concerns about receiving comments in a timely manner,” says Robb. “They can find discouraging delays and timely comments are essential for effective learning. AI offers a solution. “

The impact of the AI ​​extends beyond the class at work, where employers now expect business graduates to be literate by AI. In response, business schools integrate AI in courses while teaching students when counting on it – and when human judgment is essential.

But knowing how to use AI alone is not enough. “The skills that are most difficult to develop are critical thinking and the ability to identify and test disinformation,” explains Paul Kett, a global director of skills and education at the PWC consulting firm. “In a world where the disputed information becomes more and more common, these interdisciplinary skills become all the more important.”

This is exactly what some educators are worried about AI could erode. Vishal Sachdev, professor at the Gies College of Business, at the University of Illinois in Urbana -Champaign, says that students are likely to “unload cognitive” – ​​using AI as a shortcut, rather than engaging deep with the course equipment. “There is nothing transformer to use chatbots because they are still not very precise,” he adds, stressing how they often generate false or misleading information, called “hallucinations”.

Thus, while he uses chatbots at Gies, Sachdev considers the greatest value of AI as support for questions and answers beyond the simple – as a brainstorming tool and helps in learning, rating and even evaluation.

Trade school teachers are divided on AI. Some consider it a powerful teaching tool, while others fear undergoing learning and academic integrity. “I saw a mixture of surprise, enthusiasm, concern and apprehension,” said MIT Sloan School of Management, Eric So, who heads a group of teachers who integrate AI into teaching.

He recognizes the value of AI for teachers: he helps to think, update the course equipment and create interactive tools. However, he also disrupts traditional course and evaluation methods. “It is quite difficult to design assignments that can be made without AI,” explains SO. “I suspect that a large part of our program will be redesigned from scratch.”

Christian Terwiesch, professor at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that Chatgpt was outperforming certain students in his operations management course.

The reception of the AI ​​in education has overturned. Initially, many educators have considered it a threat, with concerns about cheating and improper use leading certain schools to prohibit it. Now, this resistance fades while institutions find ways to integrate AI into teaching instead of fighting it.

“When the generative tools appeared for the first time, we saw the risks rather than the opportunities,” explains Kett from Pwc. “And there were a lot of” we cannot allow these tools to be used “. But we very quickly exceeded this, to see many positive opportunities for higher education. ”