Michigan State University said it is planning to integrate artificial intelligence across all major areas of study, beginning with a foundational course this fall, as business leaders push for a more digital-ready workforce. The effort is being developed through MSU’s Green and White Council, a group of statewide civic and business leaders partnering with the university on preparation for future jobs.
MSU said it is making “AI-Ready Spartans” one of three recommendations from the council, alongside initiatives aimed at enhancing students’ future careers through real-world experiences and increasing collaborations between MSU researchers and industry. MSU stopped short of making AI courses mandatory, even as other universities have begun moving toward required AI competencies.
In interviews shared through Bridge Michigan, Green and White Council co-chair Sanjay Gupta said higher education is gravitating toward that direction or it would be in peril if it does not. “Higher ed is gravitating in that direction, or it will be in peril if it doesn’t,” Gupta said, adding that “Every business is a technology business. So if our students are not technological savvy when they graduate they are going to be left behind.”
MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz said the council’s work will be a “game changer” for students and the workplaces they enter. “It’s going to be a game changer for us, for our graduates and ultimately for those workplaces that they land in,” he told Bridge Michigan.
The council’s recommendations are being supported by a $5 million seed gift from an anonymous MSU alumnus, MSU said. Guskiewicz assembled the Green and White Council last year, and it consists of 18 civic and business leaders.
The council’s recommendations were developed after members responded to a question about the critical skills students need, MSU said. Matt Elliott, a co-chair of the Green and White Council, said “By far the most critical skill that cut across every major was this idea that every job is in some way, shape or form, a digital job,” and he said “the in-demand skill in the digital world right now is how to AI in the workplace.”
MSU said the council’s approach includes an “industry-informed” AI curriculum shaped by needs cited by local industry leaders. Elliott said the goal is to ensure “everyone, regardless of major, has a context and a toolkit to be able to use AI in that space.”
While MSU plans to expand AI education, MSU said many Michigan colleges currently offer AI-related coursework without requiring it. A University of Michigan spokesperson said students can learn about AI and explore its responsible use through more than 500 credit and noncredit course offerings and partner resources, but none are required. Wayne State University established the Institute for AI and Data Science and offers a range of AI courses, but none are required, and Oakland University said it integrates AI literacy in specialized programs without making an AI course required.
Oakland’s spokesperson said the university is revising its general education program and that there are discussions about incorporating emergent technologies such as AI into a new core curriculum in the future. “However, we are in the midst of revising our general education program in which there are discussions of incorporating emergent technologies such as AI into the new core curriculum in the future,” spokesperson Brian Bierley said.
Looking beyond Michigan, the AP story highlighted that Purdue University has described an “AI working competency” graduation requirement for all undergraduate students beginning in fall 2026. Purdue President Mung Chiang said the “reach and pace of AI’s impact to society” and its effect on education mean Purdue must “lean in and lean forward” across the university.
Dennis Livesay, Dave House Dean of Computing at Michigan Technological University, said AI is more than a new set of digital tools and described it as “a whole new way of doing and being in every discipline.” Livesay said students and practitioners will need to think through what AI does well and poorly, why it produces a result, and how to implement it, adding that it will become “a universal set of problems” that universities will require.
MSU said it is also modernizing its general education curriculum, with a working committee evaluating whether and how to reflect future generative technologies. Gupta said MSU is designing a foundational AI and industry course intended to introduce students to how AI is used across key sectors through hands-on experiential learning and applying AI concepts to real-world problems. “The foundational AI and industry course that we are designing is a way to be able to introduce to students how AI is used across key sectors of the industry by using hands-on experiential learning and applying AI concepts to real world problems,” Gupta said.
Gupta also said business leaders expect AI will change job tasks, not necessarily eliminate jobs for those who engage with the technology. “Business leaders are talking about it’s not as though AI is going to take away jobs,” he said. “AI is going to take away the jobs of people who do not want to get involved in AI.”
MSU said that while there are a few dozen AI courses at the university or under development, the new initiative will identify best practices and scale them up while identifying what industries need. Guskiewicz said the council is designed to bring industry leaders in to help inform “what, what is needed in today’s recent graduates that higher ed is not delivering on,” and he said he does not know of another university doing it the same methodical way.
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