Fostering AI Confidence in Tomorrow’s Leaders

• Taylor’s Business School recently identified ways its faculty could reduce students’ concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on their employability.
• The business school now has implemented an AI tutor buddy to acclimate students and faculty to the technology and used multidisciplinary projects to help students develop skills that AI tools cannot replicate.
• The goal is to create a culture that empowers students to use AI tools in the classroom now and in the workplace after graduation.

 
We have entered an era in which humans are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to complete tasks in shorter periods of time. However, we are quickly discovering that AI can be a double-edged sword, which on one side promises greater productivity, but on the other is causing many workers to develop severe cases of FOBO—or the “fear of becoming obsolete.”

Today’s college students are no different. Although many of them are enjoying using AI tools in their assignments, they also are experiencing AI-driven anxiety as they wonder whether what they are studying now will be relevant to their future employment.

However, educators can reduce students’ AI-driven fears through targeted administrative efforts and thoughtful redesign of assignments and assessments. At Taylor’s Business School at Taylor’s University in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, for example, we recently reevaluated our own curriculum to find touchpoints where students can learn to master the use of AI tools.

Our objective: To decrease their FOBO and demonstrate where they can add most value in an AI-supported workplace. 

Impact Labs: Teaching AI-Proof Skills

To prepare students for an AI-shaped future, we know that we must deliver learning experiences in which students must draw on human skills that cannot be easily replicated by AI tools. At our business school, we emphasize these skills through Taylor’s Impact Labs, an initiative that introduces purpose-driven learning via multidisciplinary projects that focus on societal impact.

Inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, each of our 11 Impact Labs focuses on accomplishing a different goal, from eradicating poverty to promoting clean energy. Since 2023, students have completed more than 100 projects.

At the beginning of each project, students create “I will” statements that articulate their commitments to making a difference. Then, business students collaborate with their peers from other disciplines on projects that address complex real-world problems. This marks the start of their journey into community-focused learning, allowing them to contribute based on their interests.

Projects are assigned according to module topic or disciplinary area—for example, students in the School of Architecture, Building and Design are working on the My Bamboo project, for which they design and build bamboo structures to encourage the public’s use of previously dormant green spaces. Business students in our Principles of Marketing course support this work by proposing marketing strategies to promote the project to the community.

Another effort involving master’s students in psychology focuses on providing psychoeducation to Indigenous communities in Malaysia, aiming to support residents’ mental health and well-being. The students facilitate sessions that help both adults and children enhance their social skills, time management, and teamwork. Our business students offer further support by educating these communities in basic business and financial planning.

In yet another project, approximately 280 undergraduate students worked on teams to showcase proven company practices that support employees; they then presented their findings in a public exhibition.

As students exchange knowledge and ideas with each other and resolve the range of conflicts that arise, they develop meta-competencies that cannot be easily mimicked by AI.

While students can use AI to help them generate initial ideas, the technology cannot replicate the unique, immersive, and collaborative experiences that these in-person projects offer. Students must draw on higher-order thinking skills and go beyond predictable answers to design their solutions.

Moreover, students can inject their own passions into the projects. And as they exchange knowledge and ideas with each other and resolve the range of conflicts that arise among the diverse individuals on their teams, they develop meta-competencies that cannot be easily mimicked by AI.

As they work together, students discover that no AI tool can curate the original content that they can create through their collective collaboration, brainstorming, and discussion. Through these experiences, students develop into independent and innovative thinkers who can produce reflective, applicable, and transdisciplinary knowledge.

The Impact Labs also require faculty to go beyond template-based, straightforward assessments. As faculty take the steps necessary to design these projects—from determining learning outcomes to developing teaching content to creating assessment rubrics to providing feedback—they, too, experience their own learning journeys. Impact Labs give faculty ways to explore their crucial role in helping students develop AI-proof competencies.

Noodle Factory: Setting Policies, Creating a Culture

Once we addressed the human component of AI, we wanted to create a culture where AI is embraced—to show students that AI is not as future-threatening as they might fear. One way Taylor’s Business School creates this culture is through its use of Noodle Factory (NF), an AI tutor buddy that supports students in their studies.

NF is intended to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning at Taylor’s Business School, in a way that also integrates AI into the culture. But its implementation has not been without challenges. In the beginning, business faculty were neither familiar with the system nor convinced of its effectiveness.

To overcome their skepticism, the business school was assisted by a team from NF that worked to educate faculty on how to use the tool most effectively to enhance student learning. The NF team held weekly engagement sessions with our professors to help them navigate the challenges of using the AI buddy and address questions as they arose.

Our next obstacle was overcoming students’ reluctance to use the tutor buddy. We soon discovered that the main reason behind the low participation rate was that students simply were unfamiliar with the value that the tutor buddy could add to their studies. As faculty incorporated NF into their teaching—and as students began to realize how it could enhance their learning through formative assessment—participation steadily increased.

We have found that students now use the AI tutor primarily for help identifying appropriate study materials, more detailed explanations on specific topics, and feedback on their performance on quizzes. Students appreciate not only using NF as a formative assessment tool, but also having the online tutor available to them 24/7, so that they no longer have to wait until the next working day for answers to their questions. In this way, NF has encouraged self-paced learning and further removed any doubts they might have about its value.

Creating a Positive AI Culture

As we have worked to make students and faculty less fearful about AI, we have learned that cultivating a positive and healthy AI culture is critical to easing any fears students and faculty might have surrounding the technology. With this in mind, we believe that schools can have the greatest success integrating AI into the curriculum if they also take the following actions:

Offer training. This will acclimate students and faculty to the technology, help ease their fears, and prepare them to take the greatest advantage of it.

Set and communicate clear policies. Establish AI policies that set guidelines for using AI wisely in teaching and learning. By communicating clear expectations—as well as officially documenting and communicating these policies in the classroom—schools can alleviate any confusion around its use and mitigate issues related to ethics and integrity. Such policies might specify the percentage of AI-generated content that is allowed particular assignments, clarify how the use of AI tools must be attributed, and describe the consequences of using AI tools excessively or without transparency to complete assignments.

If schools try to avoid the use of AI in the classroom, they will only increase students’ fears about the future and miss opportunities to show students how to use AI to study more effectively.

Start at the top. Healthy AI cultures must start with administrators willing to support AI-focused initiatives that help faculty and students grow and learn together as they explore the technology.

Collaborate to design assessments. Ask the university’s quality assurance team to demonstrate how faculty can use tools such as Noodle Factory to design assessments or integrate AI into the curriculum in ways that build student confidence and enhance learning.

No More FOBO

We are all aware that the coming of AI is unavoidable—in fact, it is already here. If schools try to pretend otherwise by avoiding the use of AI in the classroom, they will only increase students’ fears about the future and miss opportunities to show students how to use AI to study more effectively.

Empowering our students to use AI in their assignments is the key. We must guide them as they develop AI-proof human skills, and we must design assignments in which they learn how to use each AI tool to its greatest advantage.

With each interaction with an AI tutor buddy or other AI platform, students will further reinforce their critical thinking, collaborative skills, and AI proficiency. And with each well-designed assessment, their FOBO will diminish as they future-proof their skills—and grow more assured about their future employability.