Writer: Mirella Franzese
Industry corner is a monthly series on what company leaders believe are the most important best practices in their sector or organization to ensure growth and sustainable success.
December 2025 — Amid the rapid evolution of AI in the classroom, the future of education is at a turning point. American higher ed institutions are increasingly pivoting to AI to enhance personalized learning and update curriculums according to industry needs — but balancing tech capabilities with ethical standards in teaching remains a challenge.
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Educators today face the dual challenge of preparing students for an increasingly competitive and AI-driven job market while also equipping them to navigate the growing complexities of this technology through ethical discernment and critical thought.
“AI is unquestionably the biggest driver of change,” said Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, dean of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, in an interview with Invest:. “Across the board — from operations to instruction to outreach — AI has become deeply embedded in everything we do.”
Increasing use
At the academic level, 90% of graduate and undergraduate students use AI, according to a 2025 AI in Education Trends Report conducted by Copyleaks, which surveyed over 1,000 students at American colleges and universities.
AI adoption is rapidly accelerating as well within the higher ed industry. The report found that over the past year, 73% of students increased their AI usage, signaling its growing role within the American classroom.
Schools like Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and Texas A&M University are building on this momentum.
“We’re leveraging AI to innovate how we teach,” Bajeux-Besnainou told Invest:. “Regardless of discipline, nearly every faculty member is involved with AI in some way. It’s part of engineering, computer science, the arts, and, of course, business.”
For Bajeux-Besnainou, AI integration is both a subject matter and a teaching tool — one that demands a nuanced educational strategy to ensure students remain both ethical and critical thinkers in a technology-rich world.
“The most significant change that business schools across the country are grappling with right now is how to effectively harness the power of artificial intelligence while navigating its complex ethical implications,” explained Nate Sharp, dean of Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, in an interview with Invest:.
The challenge is that most students still don’t understand the fundamental difference between ethical and unethical applications of AI, as Sharp notes.
Adoption curve
According to Sharp, AI’s immoral use in the classroom often arises from a student’s desire to stay ahead of the adoption curve in what is an increasingly competitive and dynamic job market.
“I recently had a prospective student in my office,” Sharp told Invest:. “His main question was: ‘What is Mays Business School doing to prepare students for the future in light of AI?’ He wasn’t thinking about the job market in 2030 — he wanted to know how we’re preparing students for the jobs of 2040, 2050, and beyond.”
That’s because young graduates today face one of the toughest job markets of the decade — excluding the pandemic — with most struggling to secure employment right out of college, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The national unemployment rate has largely held steady at 4% in the past year, but for new college graduates (aged 20-24 with a bachelor’s degree or higher) it’s closer to 10%.
From May 2024 to May 20225, the overall unemployment rate for new grads looking for work was 6.6% — a gap to the broader population that became its widest in about 35 years, per WSJ.
At the same time, layoffs at major tech companies due to the AI job revolution are souring the outlook for young talent. “The employment landscape is shifting, and employers are refining their expectations,” said Sharp.
Clarity needed
Although, beyond pressures from a progressively AI-driven labor market, the AI knowledge gap stems from slow academic integration across U.S. schools and higher education institutions.
According to a survey of 4,800 students at a technical university in 2024, there’s a lack of clarity between what applications of the technology are allowed and not allowed, especially as artificial intelligence growth continues to outpace both institutional and ethical guidelines.
Yet, academic organizations across the country like Tennessee’s Nossi College of Art & Design are catching up in an effort to meet the demands of a fast-changing employer market.
According to President and CEO Cyrus Vatandoost, the key to integrating AI into the curricula requires an understanding of where the technology adds value and where it doesn’t.
“At this stage, recognizing its limitations is just as important as leveraging its capabilities,” he said.“(Our) approach varies by program and even by class. In coding courses, AI usage differs from creative classes, where generative AI may be restricted to research purposes only.”
This strategy essentially teaches students about AI’s ethical limitations and how to articulate them to employers through critical thinking, which makes them more competitive in the job market, according to Vatandoost.
“There’s a tension. We want students to think independently, not rely on AI to do the thinking for them,” added Debra Schwinn, president of Palm Beach Atlantic University, in an interview with Invest:. “AI is powerful, but it’s not infallible. We teach our students to use it critically.”
American higher education institutions are therefore balancing AI adoption with strong foundational values (such as ethics, critical thinking, and judgement) to scale personalized learning and meet employers’ needs, all while safeguarding human agency amid advancing technology.
Advancing on all fronts
“That is central to how we think about the future of education,” said Carnegie Mellon’s Bajeux-Besnainou. “It is not just about staying current with technology, it’s about holding on to the very qualities that make us human.”
To that end, Carnegie Mellon has built its curriculum around the belief that while AI may grow ever stronger, human judgment must still grow stronger.
Per the university’s ethos, the future of education will be intelligent, data-informed and human driven at its core.
“As AI becomes more intelligent, our challenge is ensuring that human teachers, human thinkers, also evolve,”said Bajeux-Besnainou. “We want to prepare learners to critically assess, cross-check, and apply AI — not just use it mindlessly….Education should inspire human agency, not erode it.”
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