They start with an 18-hour humanities core spanning art, history, mass communication, philosophy, political science and sociology. Students then choose a computer science track or a cross-disciplinary humanities track built from English, history, mass communication and political science.<\/p>\n
The challenge, he said, was building a program where the technology didn\u2019t overwhelm the humanities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a degree in AI,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s humanities and AI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Texas Wesleyan is trying to make the degree stable at its core and flexible around the edges. Students will continue studying history, philosophy, literature and political thought. Faculty can change the AI tools used in gateway and upper-level courses as the technology evolves.<\/p>\n
UTA began with programs already built around data. Its College of Business launched a master\u2019s degree in business analytics in 2015 and a bachelor\u2019s degree in 2021. This fall, UTA replaced both of those with programs in artificial intelligence for business and redesigned the curricula.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a continuous evolution, not a one-time change,\u201d said Radha Mahapatra, chair of UTA\u2019s information systems and operations management department.<\/p>\n
In the UTA approach, statistics and programming provide a foundation beneath newer applications. An open-ended undergraduate seminar gives faculty room to teach generative AI, agentic AI and future developments. Faculty review course content each semester and receive AI training, said Fernando Jaramillo, UTA\u2019s associate dean for students and programs.<\/p>\n
What is generative AI and agentic AI?<\/p>\n
At UTA, business students in AI-related programs will learn about generative AI and agentic AI.<\/p>\n
Generative AI, which describes models like ChatGPT or Claude, focuses on creating new content based on an input, such as user prompts, questions or other data. Its output can include text, images, audio, video or software code.
\nAgentic AI focuses on achieving a goal. It can determine what steps are needed, select among possible actions and work through a task over time independently while still involving a human for approvals, oversight or decisions that require judgment. An example includes retailers like Amazon that use the tool to track inventory or create delivery routes.<\/p>\n
UTA College of Business has an advisory board with executives from BNSF Railway, Accenture, Walmart, AT&T, Ericsson and other companies that helped shape its programs. UTA\u2019s latest AI and Analytics Symposium drew about 200 participants from academia and industry, with roughly 50 companies represented, Mahapatra said.<\/p>\n
Conversations like those going on at UTA and Texas Wesleyan speak to a gap studied by Michael Fried, a senior researcher at Ithaka S+R, an education research nonprofit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In spring 2026, Fried surveyed 500 instructors at nationwide four-year nonprofit colleges and universities and compared their answers with a separate survey of 200 U.S. AI decision-makers conducted by HiBob, a human resources technology company.<\/p>\n
The comparison found that employers focused on what AI could do for productivity, such as workflow design, automation and technical integration. Instructors emphasized how people should use the technology, such as transparency, attribution, critical thinking and reviewing AI output.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The difference does not mean colleges chose the wrong priorities. Fried said higher education\u2019s role in job preparation is a contested question that varies by institution and degree program. For any AI degree, universities should define learning outcomes, design courses to meet them and assess whether students achieve them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can ultimately hurt students and eventually new employees is if institutions talk about AI skills but really mean one thing, and employers talk about AI skills and mean another,\u201d he said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s included in UTA\u2019s bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees of AI in business analytics?<\/p>\n
UTA replaced its business analytics degrees with Artificial Intelligence for Business programs this fall and redesigned the curricula.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 120-hour bachelor\u2019s<\/a> combines accounting, finance, management, marketing and supply chain courses with statistics, programming and AI. A full-time student can complete the 33-hour master\u2019s<\/a> in a year, though working professionals may take longer.<\/p>\n Both local programs leave room to combine fields. Texas Wesleyan\u2019s plan allows for 36 to 39 elective hours. Jaramillo said UTA graduates can double-major AI with finance or marketing.<\/p>\n UTA leaders compare AI\u2019s spread to the rise of another tool that employers expect every graduate to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI call it the Excel of the 21st century,\u201d Mahapatra said.<\/p>\n What can a graduate do?\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas Wesleyan wants students to question how AI systems are used and explain their judgment, Ohan said. That could mean asking whether an automated loan process recreates redlining or weighing privacy concerns when a police department uses facial recognition.<\/p>\n Ohan wants students to treat AI as an argument partner, not an answer machine.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you get this degree, you\u2019re not going to be the tech,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you might be the adviser in the room in the school district and the police department and the bank that\u2019s training people to use it ethically.\u201d<\/p>\n UTA, meanwhile, approaches those questions through data. Mahapatra described a hiring model trained on records showing that past employees from certain ZIP codes were more likely to succeed. If the data favor high-income neighborhoods, the model can reproduce that bias when recommending applicants.<\/p>\n The output may look efficient. The decision can still be discriminatory or illegal, Mahapatra said.<\/p>\n UTA students will study statistics, natural language processing, machine learning and neural networks, but they must understand the business problem, decide whether the AI\u2019s answer is useful and explain their findings. The curricula include courses on ethical AI use.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mahapatra already has been allowing students to use AI in his classes, but they must disclose how.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense for me to say, \u2018Don\u2019t use AI,\u2019\u201d he said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s a productivity enhancement tool.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas Wesleyan is also developing a proposed Master of Science degree in project management for the AI economy. The degree would combine project management with AI, automation and data analytics, moving closer to the employer side of Fried\u2019s findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n How other Tarrant County institutions approach AIWhat is generative AI and agentic AI?<\/p>\n Other Tarrant County institutions are taking more short-term approaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n Professor Thomas Bell, who developed the proposal, said AI can generate schedules, assemble budgets and identify risks.<\/p>\n It cannot read the room.<\/p>\n An AI system may calculate that a team working 60-hour weeks can meet a deadline, Bell said. It does not understand the burnout that follows or notice why a stakeholder has stopped speaking.<\/p>\n \u201cAI predicts, but ultimately humans decide,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n Texas Wesleyan\u2019s humanities capstone and proposed project-management curriculum would require students to show how they used AI and where human judgment entered.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whoever approves an AI-assisted result remains accountable, Bell said. A prompt entered into a public platform could expose a company\u2019s private information. A system may absorb work that an artist, writer or designer never agreed to contribute. Data centers consume power and water even when the requested output is only a short email.<\/p>\n Determining whether students are learning those lessons will take time. Fried estimated that building a record showing whether the programs help graduates find work could take three to six years. Until then, students may see \u201cAI\u201d in a program name and assume the degree will lead to a growing field.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a real risk,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n Skills matter<\/p>\n Earlier this summer, Ohan sat beside a parent whose son wanted to major in a humanities field. The parent wondered: What job could he get after graduation?\u00a0<\/p>\n Ohan thought of the history graduate \u2014 he got the AI job, earning $120,000 a year.<\/p>\n The job was about artificial intelligence. The skills that landed him the job were not.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s those human skills that you learn in the traditional humanities,\u201d Ohan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n The Report\u2019s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/UTA-Election_Oct22_CamiloDiaz0056-1024x683.jpg\")
The University of Texas at Arlington campus sign is pictured on Oct. 21, 2024. Its College of Business is replacing its master\u2019s and bachelor\u2019s degrees in business analytics with Artificial Intelligence for Business programs. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n