Artificial Intelligence is a widespread and controversial toolbox of possibilities. Especially in the areas of business and economics. Business and the economy are what we all work within and around nearly every day of our lives simply to live. U.S. consumers especially, interact with AI in more ways than most are probably aware of, and have done so for decades now throughout their daily lives.
In truth, if a company is not using AI in some fashion; to evaluate and improve efficiency, employing chatbots to ease customer service needs, etc., then they are steadily becoming the minority and will likely be outpaced sooner than later. McKinsey’s Annual survey and report on the state of AI in business has shown that, since 2019, roughly 50-60% of respondent businesses employ some form of AI in their work. Beyond that, those respondent businesses that employ AI the most have shown consistently higher financial returns than those who resist or are slow adopters of AI tools.[1]
With businesses seeming to only push further and further in AI adoption and implementation, how do universities, libraries, and business schools in particular, adapt to best prepare their students? Faculty are caught in between concerns about students using or being used chatbots and other AI tools for their schoolwork, and needing their students to understand these AI tools for when they graduate. So, what should we do? For today’s business students, understanding AI and its limitations, applications, and ethics thereof is increasingly essential to their successful entry into the business world, so it cannot be avoided.
However, AI is still very much in its infancy. It’s incapable of critical reading, most often cannot provide reproducible results or methodology for its work and is still heavily shaped by the designers’ own biases, whether they know it or not. Countless examples of AI chatbots going rogue illustrate this last point quite well.[2] Especially because of these concerns and capabilities, it is important for business schools, and their students to understand the reality of AI, its limitations and capabilities. It’s a tool like any other, and it is not going anywhere anytime soon. Leaving it to be our responsibility to critically evaluate and understand AI’s ethical uses and implications in academia, business, and society. It will be curious to see what ways AI develops in the coming years, academia’s responses to those developments, and whether its societal prevalence will prove to be as long lasting as it appears.
[1] “The State of AI in 2022—and a Half Decade in Review | McKinsey.” Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2022-and-a-half-decade-in-review.
[2] “Microsoft Pretty Much Admitted Bing Chatbot Can Go Rogue If Prodded.” Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-bing-chatbot-go-rogue-if-prodded-2023-2.
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