When choosing a degree program, you should make sure the program includes coursework that reflects what the job market demands of recent graduates, including the ability to understand, apply and think critically while using AI tools.
To prepare students with the right AI skills, ASU's online programs are constantly evolving. Faculty are updating courses, rethinking assignments and building AI fluency into the learning experience across disciplines to make sure you leave your program ready to use AI effectively. This way, you’ll be able to thrive in today's and tomorrow's job market.
Phil Regier, university dean for educational initiatives and CEO of EdPlus — the ASU unit that serves as a steward of ASU Online programs — sees this as one of the defining responsibilities of modern higher education.
"We are living through one of the most consequential shifts in the history of work, and our students deserve a degree that prepares them not just for the jobs that exist today, but for the ones that haven't been imagined yet,” Regier says. “At ASU, we are deeply committed to equipping every student with the AI skills employers are searching for, because AI isn't going to replace you, but a person who knows how to work with AI will."
Staying ahead of the AI innovation curve
AI is front of mind, not just in individual assignments but in the overall outcomes that ASU’s online programs are designed to deliver. ASU faculty don't wait for curriculum review cycles to update their courses. They are constantly updating courses in real-time to ensure students are informed, capable AI users and ready for the workforce.
"AI is here to stay,” says Sean Williams, school director and professor in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts - School of Applied Professional Studies at ASU. “We have to learn how to use it for all our professional purposes, including teaching, learning and daily work. Pretending that AI will go away or that we can ignore it seems dangerous… because the people who know what AI is and how to use it will be those who can participate in its ethical evolution.”
A core element of how ASU approaches teaching AI is ensuring you use it strategically in ways that make sense for your field and goals. That means equipping students not just with tools, but with the judgment to use them well.
Catheryn Reardon, assistant teaching professor of psychology and AI Strategist in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at ASU, frames it directly: "Students are not expected to blindly adopt AI, but they are expected to engage with it and make informed decisions about its use."
Professors are also making sure courses stay relevant as the pace of AI change accelerates. New models and tools emerge constantly, and ASU Online faculty update assignments and course materials regularly to give students hands-on experience with the latest AI tools.
Reardon, for example, uses the Human-Centered AI Metacognitive Learning Model — a framework she developed and continues to refine specifically to keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution. The framework is grounded in learning through experience, reflection, and the development of critical thinking and decision-making skills, so that you learn with AI and how it shapes your own thinking and work.
ASU Online courses that immerse students in AI
Many ASU Online courses are building AI literacy into the student experience. Below are a few examples of courses ASU faculty are teaching that are actively integrating AI into their assignments and learnings:
- UXP 424: Information Architecture
- Taught by Williams, this course explores the knowledge structures of websites, apps and other interactive media, covering the main pillars of information architecture such as structure types, organization schemes, labeling, logic and navigation patterns. The course leans directly into AI adoption by having students use it for every assignment. The course follows “a structure where assignment sequences first ask students to employ AI, then apply human reasoning to related tasks and last to combine both human and AI on more complex assignments or tasks,” Williams says.
- PSY 494: AI Ethics
- Taught by Reardon, this course explores the ethical implications of integrating AI technologies into research and practice in social and behavioral sciences. Students examine critical considerations such as bias, fairness, privacy, data security, accountability, transparency and human-AI interaction. "This course helps [students] see that [AI] ethics is not abstract, it is something they actively practice as they evaluate outputs, question assumptions, and make decisions in real time,” Reardon explains.
- LAW 519: Legal Method and Writing
- Taught by Kimberly Holst, a clinical professor of law in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU, this course introduces first-year law students to the foundational skills of legal analysis, research and predictive writing. Through the course, students also learn to combine their analytical skills with the right tools — including AI. “The most important things for students to develop are their analytical skills,” Holst says. “By keeping the course grounded in the core skills and integrating AI where it complements skills development, we are putting our students in the best position to succeed."
- TAM 541: Business Strategy
- Taught by David Slocum, professor of practice at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU, this course is designed to build strategic thinking in a corporate context by reviewing the range of strategic responses firms pursue across industries and global markets. AI is used consistently in this course as a thinking partner in strategic analyses, decision-making and responses to real business problems. The required use of AI in this course reflects how strategic analysis actually occurs in the business world today. Slocum wants students "to make connections between what they're working on in terms of historical cases or other historical learning materials, and what's going on currently." The result is students combining their own expertise with the best of what AI tools can offer.
Earn your degree online at ASU
AI is reshaping every industry, and the degree you earn should prepare you to lead in that world — not catch up to it. In addition to learning the skills related to the career you wish to pursue after your degree, you’ll also have a deep understanding of how to use AI in a way that’s needed in your field when you earn your degree through ASU Online.
Interested in building the skills needed to lead in an AI-driven world? Explore our 400+ degree programs designed to support your career goals.