UNK Prepares Students for AI’s Role in the Workforce

In 2024, 84% of students surveyed by the Digital Education Council reported using Artificial Intelligence for their studies.

Of those students, 24% reported using AI daily.

In another national survey, 80% of college students think that college should prepare them to use AI after graduation.

UNK is taking that challenge seriously.

“It’s very quickly touching all jobs; it’s reaching into all industries,” explained Shannon Mulhearn, UNK assistant professor and director of UNK’s Center for Teaching Excellence. “If we are at the university level, preparing students to be future people out in the workforce, then we also need to prepare them for ethical use of AI.”

With a recent wave of new AI initiatives, that’s exactly what UNK is setting out to do.

Led by the UNK Department of Graduate Studies and Academic Innovation (GSAI) and the UNK AI Taskforce, the university is taking aim at artificial intelligence not just from a teaching perspective, but for research, staff productivity, and more.

Through varied initiatives, UNK is striving to build a community that can tackle this novel challenge together.

“I truly believe that it’s the strength of a community that allows something to grow and become sustainable,” said Associate of GSAI Dean Megan Adkins. “This approach, building this community around it, that’s how there’s going to be support.”

As a part of a University of Nebraska system-wide effort, UNK is offering 300 enterprise-level ChatGPT licenses open to faculty, staff, and students in a pilot program. Stakeholders interested in one of these licenses can submit to the OpenAI Challenge. By the end of the spring semester, those who first applied should hear back on their proposals and gain access to the enterprise version of the AI tool.

This initiative is just one of many to “get people on the keys” and use AI tools.

Several AI Learning Communities are also being formed. These groups will exist for staff, faculty, and students, meeting regularly to share how they are utilizing AI tools, helping each other troubleshoot issues, and forge new pathways forward together.

The hope is that the findings from these groups can be showcased at a symposium in Fall 2025.

As AI continues to evolve, so too must institutional guidance.

“We’re still at the early stages, but people are asking for direction,” Adkins said. “The NU system is reviewing policy options, and we’re learning from institutions like UNO, who have begun to formalize their approach. At UNK, we’re starting with flexible, evolving guidelines so we can support innovation while ensuring ethical, responsible use.”

These guidelines, as well as other AI learning resources, will be made available through the Loper AI Lab webpage, UNK’s hub for all things AI, designed to empower the campus community to engage with these tools in meaningful and forward-thinking ways.