MSU to offer AI studies across all majors amid push for digital-ready workforce

MSU is developing a foundational AI course for students in partnership with a council of business and civil leaders outlining needs for the workforce of the future
Other recommendations include real-world career opportunities for students and more collaboration between MSU researchers and industries
An anonymous MSU alumnus has provided $5 million to seed the recommendations

Michigan State University is making a major push to build students’ digital skills, especially in artificial intelligence.

Plans are underway to integrate AI in every major area of study, starting with a foundational course this fall.

The push for students’ digital competency and AI proficiency comes from business leaders who say it’s a critical need in the workplace and MSU needs to prioritize it to strengthen the state’s workforce. That’s why “AI-Ready Spartans” is among three recommendations from MSU’s Green and White Council, a team of statewide business and civic leaders partnering with the university to prepare students for future jobs.

MSU stopped short of making AI courses mandatory, though at least one prominent US university has made AI a graduation requirement and some experts say it’s an inevitable development in higher education’s future.

In an interview with Bridge Michigan, council co-chair Sanjay Gupta noted that every field is steeped in technology so there is a growing need to equip students with digital tools for future success.

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“Higher ed is gravitating in that direction, or it will be in peril if it doesn’t,,” said Gupta, dean emeritus of MSU’s Broad College of Business. “Every business is a technology business. So if our students are not technological savvy when they graduate they are going to be left behind.”

A $5 million seed gift from an anonymous MSU alumnus will be used to launch the council’s initiatives in AI, along with the two other recommendations: enhancing students’ future careers with real-world experiences and increasing collaborations between MSU researchers and industry for innovation and impact on societal challenges.

MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz assembled the Green and White Council last year. It consists of 18 civic and business leaders.

“It’s going to be a game changer for us, for our graduates and ultimately for those workplaces that they land in,” Guskiewicz told Bridge Michigan during an interview last week.

The three initiatives came after members responded to a key question: What are some of the critical skills that students need?

“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,” said MSU alumnus Matt Elliott, a co-chair of the Green and White Council. “There’s a digital component to everything we do now. And to put a finer point on that, the in-demand skill in the digital world right now is how to AI in the workplace.”

That’s why the council is recommending an “industry-informed” AI curriculum, or one that is shaped by needs cited by local industry leaders.

“So that everyone, regardless of major, has a context and a toolkit to be able to use AI in that space,” Elliott said.

Michigan colleges offer scores of courses in AI.

At University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, students have the opportunity to learn about AI, and explore its responsible use within their field of study, through more than 500 credit and noncredit course offerings, along with resources from partners such as Google Career Essentials short course in AI, said U-M spokesperson Kay Jarvis. But none are required.

Wayne State University last year established the Institute for AI and Data Science to promote research, interdisciplinary collaboration, industry engagement and workforce development. WSU also offers scores of AI courses that range from fundamental to complex, a master’s degree and professional development certification. But none required.

Oakland University also integrates AI literacy in several specialized programs but no course is required.

“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.

Mandatory courses coming?

Last year Purdue University in Indiana hailed itself as the first higher education institution to unveil an “AI working competency” graduation requirement for all undergraduate students beginning in fall 2026.

“The reach and pace of AI’s impact to society, including many dimensions of higher education, means that we at Purdue must lean in and lean forward and do so across different functions at the university,” Purdue President Mung Chiang said at the time.

Other colleges and universities likely will follow in upcoming years, said Dennis Livesay, Dave House Dean of Computing at Michigan Technological University, in the Upper Peninsula.

“We all understand that AI is more than just a new set of digital tools,” said Livesay. “It’s a whole new way of doing and being in every discipline.”

Putting AI into the framework of engineering, what Michigan Tech is best known for, Livesay said that AI is going to create designs in an instant and the role of the engineer is going to be how to evaluate those designs and take the strong elements from each one and combine them together.

“It’s a whole new way of doing engineering,” said Livesay, noting that there are pitfalls that a student will also have to navigate such as the reinforcement of stereotypes. “As we are rethinking how we do things in every discipline using the tools of AI, students and practitioners are going to need to be able to think through what does it do well, what does it do poorly, why is it giving me this result and how to implement it. It’s going to become a universal set of problems which is why I think it will be something universities will require.”

MSU is currently going through a major revamping of modernizing its general education curriculum, and a working committee is evaluating the incorporation of future generative technologies including how new and emerging AI capabilities should be reflected, Gupta said.

“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.

“Business leaders are talking about it’s not as though AI is going to take away jobs,” said Gupta. “AI is going to take away the jobs of people who do not want to get involved in AI.”

While there are a few dozen AI courses at MSU or under development, the new initiative will identify the best practices and scale them up while identifying what is needed in industries, Guskiewicz said.

“Every institution is trying to find a way to build in more experiential education,” Guskiwicz said. “I don’t know of another university that’s doing it the way we’re doing it, in a very methodical way, to put together this council and bring industry leaders in to help inform us about what, what is needed in today’s recent graduates that higher ed is not delivering on.”

MSU’s Green and White Council has long been one of Guskiewicz’s visions for MSU to partner with the industry leaders to shape and prepare students for future workforce needs. Members include Mark Murray, former president of Grand Valley University and retired executive of Meijer; Linda Hubbard, president & CEO of Carhartt, former US Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Ridgway White, president and CEO of the Mott Foundation, and Keith Clark, CEO of Dart Container.