AI adoption is creating new, never-before-seen positions even in companies that aren't tech-specific. While upskilling and re-skilling initiatives will turn the job market on its head, college educators are prepping college students for what they are about to enter.

American University Kogod School of Business Dean David Marchick joins Wealth! to discuss the process of designing artificial intelligence curriculums for students amidst an ever-changing job market.

"Our faculty has actually been really responsive and quick. AI has been moving at the speed of light, and academic institutions usually move at the speed of molasses," Marchick explains. "We were able to move quickly. So we worked with our faculty, we had a small committee. They took six weeks to look at our curriculum, and we've come up with more than 20 new or redesigned courses to infuse AI into everything we do."

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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Well, AI, the great job stealer or job savior? The debate is firmly back in focus here. Elon Musk says Tesla is boosting pay for its artificial intelligence engineers, as it looks to fend off competition from the likes of OpenAI.

The boom in the sector comes amid a growing trend of business schools offering AI-related courses. So are we automating away our future? One business school does not think so. The Dean of the American University's Kogod School of Business says understanding and using AI is now a foundational concept.

Joining us now, we've got the man himself, David Marchick, who is the Dean of the American University's Kogod School of Business. Great to have you here on the program with us.

Why is this now a new staple, you believe, for the studies that American University or a core concept that needs to be integrated?

DAVID MARCHICK: Thanks for having me. We had two speakers last year and earlier this year, who really changed my perspective. One was the president of Google, who said that AI is akin or more profound than electricity or fire. And I thought, well, that's a big statement. But what does that mean?

Then we had another speaker, who was the CEO of venture capital firm. And in response to a student question on the exact subject you just raised, will my job be replaced? He said, your job won't be replaced by AI. But your job could be replaced by someone who knows AI, if you don't.

So when I heard that, I said, we need to move with speed to give our students the tools to be competitive in the market when they graduate American University.

BRAD SMITH: It's quite remarkable, because we're talking about a change in-- an addition, I should say, in coursework and curriculum and just the type of pathway that a student can find themselves into for a job that might not even be created yet as well.

How did you go about constructing such a curriculum for something that is this cutting edge? Because it was the same kind of thinking that we were hearing or trying to wrap our minds around what universities would do, if they were trying to upskill people for blockchain or upskill people for social media back in the day.

So how have you been able to go about this in American University?

DAVID MARCHICK: Our faculty has actually been really responsive and quick. AI's been moving at the speed of light. And academic institutions, usually, move at the speed of molasses. We were actually able to move pretty quickly.

So we worked with our faculty. We had a small committee. They took six weeks to look at our curriculum. And we've come up with more than 20 new or redesigned courses to infuse AI into everything we do.

I'll give you an example. We have a professor who is a negotiation expert. Teaching students how to negotiate. She's already using AI to help students prepare for negotiations. An assignment last week was engage with AI on a debate or discussion with your boss on how to get more responsibility.

And AI can actually have that debate with you. And then analyze the gaps in your arguments. Then the next assignment was, now, imagine that your boss is hostile, difficult, angry. We've all had bosses like that. And so now students can engage with AI to practice and prepare. And that will help them be more effective in the workplace.

BRAD SMITH: Will this be a concentration as part of an existing major? Or does this eventually become its own major?

DAVID MARCHICK: So some schools are approaching it as a known major. And there's nothing wrong with that. My basic view is that AI, as a tool to be more effective in whatever you do.

So our school happens to be a national leader in a few areas. Sustainability-- we have the top curriculum in the country. Entrepreneurship-- one of the best schools. AI will be a tool to help achieve more sustainable goals for businesses and help every entrepreneur create a business, be more efficient, and be more effective.

So in my view, AI is akin to learning how to write, to reason, to debate, to communicate. Every student, regardless of whatever their major is, whatever field they go into, they need to learn the tools of AI.

BRAD SMITH: David, while we have here, I got to wonder for jobs that, perhaps, don't even exist yet, where there's going to be an AI Copilot or there's going to be this productivity annexation that all of us are trying to figure out, all right, do we work with? Or does AI replace some of the monotonous tasks?

That is a different set of work. And the scope of work changes, then the pay scale might change as well. And if the pay scale changes, then that also impacts the number of students that are saying, OK, what is the cost benefit that I have to run in order to go to a university and ultimately get skilled for something that the pay scale has changed so drastically?

I wonder how you guys are going about that, thinking, if this will even change, how much college costs as well, because of the scope of work for individual employees changing as well?

DAVID MARCHICK: It's a great question. And I mentioned that universities move at the pace of molasses. We're trying to move more quickly, because students are looking at the value proposition every day. What's the cost benefit of getting an education, either an undergraduate education or particularly in the master's and upper and graduate school area?

We need to change faster to be able to better prepare students and graduates for the workplace, because of the trends you just talked about. And so we upgrade our curriculum we infuse professionalism and communication skills into our curriculum. And we want our students to be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, not the jobs of yesterday.

If we don't change, students won't come. And so we need a change.

BRAD SMITH: David Marchick who is the Dean of the American University Kogod School of Business. Thanks so much for taking the time here today. Appreciate it.

DAVID MARCHICK: Thanks very much.