The Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business hosts a Business AI Symposium

This fall, Clemson University’s Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business hosted a full-day event, Business AI Symposium, in Phyfer Auditorium. The symposium offered an opportunity for business faculty to learn more about AI and the implications of preparing students for a business world with AI. This symposium offered an opportunity for business faculty to take a proactive approach to the rapidly growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI).

Keynote speaker: Gary Shiffman

The day began with keynote speaker Gary Shiffman, lecturer in the John E. Walker Department of Economics and two-time AI Company Founder, presented “Building AI Understanding for Success in a Disrupted Job Market.” Shiffman spoke about how AI will shift power to data-rich industries while jobs that benefit from the application of human judgment and statistical thinking will grow. He says that graduates will have to be ready to be ‘human judges’ of AI output, so it is important to make business students aware of the ethical implications of AI and teach them to use critical thinking and creativity to solve problems.

Gary Shiffman, lecturer in the John E. Walker Department of Economics and two-time AI Company Founder, stated, “I think for us as faculty and staff, we can understand it and maybe lower our anxiety a little bit even if we just know what it is, what we’re going to do with it. Knowing what it is – it’s less mysterious. It becomes less scary. I believe if we can have a little discussion about can we trust it and how we’re seeing it applied in business, we can get our students ready for graduating and going into that workforce.”

Collaboration between academia and industry

Following Shiffman was the industry panel moderated by Scott Baier, Economics Department Chair and professor. The panel brought together industry experts and leaders across several sectors, including Michelin, BMW, Dodge Industry and Supermoon AI. Panelists shared their experiences and thoughts on the most valuable skills for students to have when entering the job market, the value of internships and the importance of having both analytic and soft skills. Companies expect business graduates to have exposure to AI tools and to have worked in teams to collaborate to solve problems in creative ways. Additionally, job candidates should be able to tell stories with the data insights from AI. By gaining insights into what industries are looking for in job candidates, business faculty members can address how to best prepare students for today’s modern business landscape. The industry panel included:

• John Barnett, Co-founder, Supermoon AI (Communication AI)
• Francis Chen, Sr. Data Science Manager, Michelin
• Adam Kawash, Sr. Data Scientist, Michelin
• Artur Rdzanek, Director of Industrial Internet of Things, Dodge Industry
• Brent Westmoreland, IT Director of Strategy, Cybersecurity, and Innovation, BMW

Empowering business faculty

During the next session, Jennifer Siemens, Associate Dean for Faculty Excellence, presented results from a faculty survey that revealed how educators at the Powers College of Business are currently engaging with AI in their teaching. With 95 faculty members responding, the survey highlighted both the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI into business education. More than half of the faculty responding have an AI policy on their syllabus, and two-thirds are using AI to support teaching, with the majority using ChatGPT or other generative AI tools to help develop lecture content, create assignments and to demonstrate class concepts.

From there, a business faculty panel shared their experiences integrating AI into their courses.

• Gerry Derksen – Assistant Professor, Graphic Communications
• Mike Giebelhausen – Associate Professor, Marketing
• Babak Mammadov – Associate Professor, Accountancy
• Lily Shen – Associate Professor, Finance
• Tom Smallhorn – Professor of Practice, Marketing
• Patrick Warren – Professor, Economics

“Build-a-Bot Workshop: Let’s Create a Custom GPT for Your Class” workshop

The day wrapped up with a faculty workshop led by Mike Giebelhausen, associate professor of marketing. During the workshop, he taught other faculty members how to create custom GPTs for their classes to use. This workshop provided a tool that enables faculty members to integrate this important skill in their class by giving students opportunities to gain experience with this emerging skill.

View more about the event, watch the keynote speaker and view resources for faculty on AI here.