AI@McIntire

As the McIntire School of Commerce continues to drive positive change through its renowned business education programs, it similarly endeavors to maintain its leading position in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven learning. With AI quickly transforming commercial ventures across the globe and presenting both unprecedented, immense opportunities and significant risks, the Commerce School is actively preparing students to excel in an AI-driven economy by pursuing multiple initiatives in a wide range of areas.

In supporting students as they navigate the complex landscape of this evolving technology with a balance of ambition and caution, the ongoing expansion of student programs, faculty research, industry engagement, academic events, and more represents McIntire’s next critical steps in advancing its longstanding culture of innovative thinking, ethical responsibility, and continuous learning.

Curriculum and Programs

McIntire continues to develop a broad AI-focused curriculum, with a growing number of courses tailored for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. These offerings are variously offered on Grounds in Charlottesville, in the DC Metro/Northern Virginia area, and through asynchronous online formats, providing flexible access to cutting-edge AI education.

Undergraduate Program

Undergraduate Courses

In many courses, undergraduate students at McIntire examine multiple uses for and issues connected to AI. Beyond those classes in multiple concentration areas, the Commerce School provides specific courses addressing the role of AI in data infrastructure, deep learning models, generative AI applications, and others, including:

Ethical Application of Artificial Intelligence is dedicated to providing students with the skills to positively contribute to successful AI implementation. The course covers the management of AI; potential benefits and limitations for organizations; cultural assumptions and potential intercultural barriers in AI design and use; identifying sources of algorithmic bias in AI use and implementation; approaches to avoid or remedy AI bias; ethical frameworks; and accountable autonomy.
Foundations of Machine Learning and AI with Python leverages the vast data resources available to identify trends and patterns critical to enhancing business performance, and gives students the tools to develop essential skills in this flexible, practical programming language.
Foundations of Machine Learning and AI with Low-Code, which introduces students to contemporary business analytics methods, including predictive and descriptive analytics techniques, and demonstrates how to apply analytics to real-world business decisions with minimal coding software development.

Graduate Programs

Across all McIntire graduate programs, AI and its associated advancements and applications are central to helping students learn how to create value and solve complex business issues. Some of these integrations consist of:

M.S. in Business Analytics (MSBA): Offered in partnership with UVA’s Darden School of Business, this program delves into various aspects of AI, including natural language processing, deep learning, Transformers, and more, to develop predictive models to process and analyze text data.
M.S. in the Management of Information Technology (MSMIT): McIntire’s program for working professionals who learn to lead at the nexus of effective management and IT innovation, examine changes to organizations, business processes, and customer experiences, studying the role of AI in digital transformation that is facilitating new products, services, and business models.
M.S. in Commerce (MSC): Students choose among specialty tracks of study. Those in Biotechnology study AI as it relates to the industry and research. Students in the Business Analytics Track learn about using AI and other quantitative modeling techniques to analyze data for improved decision-making. Many M.S. in Commerce students also have the option of taking the Managerial View of AI elective (the graduate version of the Ethical Application of AI course), a requirement of the Marketing & Management Track.
M.S. in Global Commerce (MSGC): An internationally diverse group of students who study in Charlottesville, partner school ESMT Berlin, and then a third location of their choosing will be trained in AI-focused business analytics and other rapidly changing analytical tools that will relate to aspects of global strategy and other key functional areas.
M.S. in Accounting (MSA): Students preparing for the CPA and beyond it have the benefit of a tech-connected curriculum that integrates the study of AI-enabled technologies to stimulate growth, facilitate change, solve problems, and communicate in both the Tax Consulting and Financial Reporting & Assurance Tracks.

Lifelong Learning

MBI Professional Series: Upskilling With GenAI Workshop: Offering an exclusive opportunity to understand the transformative power of genAI within a business context, this two-day, in-person workshop in Northern Virginia is guided by esteemed McIntire Professors Jingjing Li and Stefano Grazioli. Designed for business professionals with no technical backgrounds, learners gain critical skills such as prompt engineering, AI model fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, and the strategic deployment of AI agents—all while underscoring the paramount importance of AI safety and ethical practices.
Commerce Essentials: Communicating with GenAI: Through this asynchronous, self-paced online micro-course taught by Professor Kiera Allison, students are empowered to better navigate human-AI co-authorship at the intersection of writing and genAI.

McIntire Faculty Making Educational Strides in AI

Commerce School faculty actively engage in projects and collaborations that enhance the academic landscape at McIntire and throughout UVA and higher education. By partnering with peers across disciplines to tackle pressing issues in AI technologies, they are driving the exploration and application of AI to solve complex teaching challenges and foster educational innovation.

McIntire AI Task Force

In spring 2024, the McIntire School established the AI Advisory Task Force, a team dedicated to leading the charge of integrating AI into a wide array of business education areas and practice.

This dynamic group of teacher-scholars and frontline industry advisers is committed to producing impactful research and fostering a culture emphasizing ethical responsibility, innovative thinking, and continuous learning. The task force ensures that McIntire remains a leader in AI integration, equipping students, faculty, and alumni with the essential skills and insights needed to thrive in a business world increasingly shaped by the constantly developing tool.

Read a full copy of the AI Task Force’s whitepaper.

Faculty Workshops

"McIntire Faculty GenAI Workshop: Stories from Our Classrooms," hosted the first AI-related talk on specific use cases directly from those who teach at the Commerce School.

Moderated by Professor Stefano Grazioli, who gave an introductory talk on his experiences researching and working with AI, the April 5, 2024, workshop included the following events: “Trouble-Shooting and Customizing Content,” by Professor Sarah Lebovitz; a discussion of current University guidelines and “Prompting Strategies,” by Professor Reza Mousavi; “Better than AI: Student-AI Collaborations in Educational Writing,” by Kiera Allison; and “Utilizing ChatGPT for Machine Learning Mastery: Preliminary Findings,” by Professor Jingjing Li.

Commerce Faculty Cross-Grounds Collaboration with UVA AI

For the 2024-2025 academic year, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and CTE created the Faculty AI Guides program to advance the understanding of generative AI. Aiming to enable faculty to make informed decisions about when and in what ways to adapt their pedagogy in response to AI tools, the Faculty AI Guides learn about the teaching implications of genAI and share their knowledge with colleagues. The Commerce School Faculty AI Guides are Professors Kiera Allison, Stefano Grazioli, Jingjing Li, and Roger Martin.
Professor Jingjing Li is also a member of the UVA Provost’s Task Force on AI Research, a group centered on faculty from across Grounds undertaking research involving AI and machine learning. As many UVA researchers are among the leaders in these areas and there has been substantial faculty hiring of AI research leaders, the organization primarily focuses on faculty hiring. Representing a dedicated, centralized effort to organize, grow, and promote research involving AI, the committee calls for creating a center for AI research at UVA and suggests activities for such a center, including a fellows program, development of focused AI research hubs, supporting data consortia, forming interdisciplinary AI research, and more.
Professor Reza Mousavi is part of the University’s GenAI Taskforce created through the Provost’s Office, as well as its GenAI Faculty Training Committee, led by Vice Provost Brie Gertler. The goal of the committee is to pique interest in generative AI at the intersection of teaching and learning, highlighting its current and potential impact on higher education, to train instructors with genAI tools, to integrate or limit its use in assignments, and to explore the many implications of AI, including its relationship with academic integrity and UVA’s Honor Code.

Research and Industry Engagement

McIntire faculty are deeply involved in pioneering AI research and industry partnerships, positioning the School as a leader in transformative technologies. By collaborating in multidisciplinary projects, lending their expertise to publish research in leading journals, and pursuing strategic industry engagement, faculty are advancing the understanding and application of AI in both academic and professional spheres.

Faculty Research Initiatives

McIntire faculty are actively engaged in groundbreaking AI research spanning a diverse range of topics, including combating bias in genAI and studying the ethical implications of AI in business. By collaborating with industry leaders and participating in interdisciplinary projects, these faculty members are not only contributing to academic knowledge but also shaping the future of AI in commerce and ensuring students receive cutting-edge insights and skills to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Learn More

Executive-in-Residence

AI Futurist, acclaimed speaker, and global adviser on AI strategy for governments and companies Zack Kass joined the McIntire School as an Executive-in-Residence in 2024. In this role, Kass collaborates with faculty, staff, and alumni, helping to examine how to stay ahead of developments in AI while concurrently upskilling faculty to bring that knowledge into the classroom. Other activities for Kass entail meeting with students via guest lectures, workshops, seminars, and networking events and participating in some of the School’s signature events; helping the School build its network of academic and industry connections surrounding AI; and contributing to relevant research initiatives.

Centers

Center for the Management of IT (CMIT): On May 10, 2024, as part of CMIT’s flagship event, the Knowledge Continuum, the Center explored AI from multiple angles. It welcomed Eric Siegel, Founder of Machine Learning Week, who discussed lessons from The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment, and Christopher Porter (A&S ’98, M.S. in MIT ’10), SVP and CISO of Fannie Mae, presented “Gen AI—A CISO/Risk Executive’s Perspective.”

AI-Themed Events

The McIntire School offers a dynamic array of AI-focused events to share knowledge; collaborate among students, faculty, and industry leaders; and ask important questions. From cutting-edge conferences to engaging hackathons and concept competitions, these events provide participants with opportunities to explore AI's potential in addressing societal challenges while connecting with thought leaders in the field.

Generative AI for the Common Good Concept Competition

On Oct. 30, 2024, student teams presented their ideas for using genAI to solve a pressing societal issue. A panel of judges including McIntire Executive-in-Residence Zack Kass and executives from Google and WillowTree provided valuable feedback on their ideas, with the winning team receiving a $1,500 cash prize.

Learn More

Spring 2024 AI Hackathon

As part of AI Week in Washington, DC, Professor Chip Ransler led students to the gHacks hackathon with Google Public Sector. Student groups collaborated with a Google engineer mentor about potential strategic uses of AI to address challenges in the Commonwealth posed by wildfires and flooding, bridging the gap between technology and public service. Winning proposals from the McIntire students approached the problem by focusing on different aspects of the natural disasters and ways to support stakeholders, ranging from emergency workers to residents and vulnerable communities.

Learn More

Fall Forum 2023: “The AI Revolution: Exploring Possibilities & Challenges”

On Oct. 20, 2023, Zack Kass served as the keynote speaker and gave his talk “Towards AGI,” (artificial general intelligence, a theory that AI may reach the point where it conceives of scientific developments on its own), providing a wealth of theories for the audience at UVA’s Old Cabell Hall to consider. Kass’ talk was followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Steven L. Johnson that included insights from panelists Kent Collier (McIntire ’03), Founder and CEO of intelligence, data, and analysis firm Reorg; Professor Sarah Lebovitz; and Professor Dorothy Leidner.

Learn More

Ethical AI Use

The Commerce School is profoundly committed to exploring and promoting ethical AI use, with faculty leading vital initiatives in this area. Through groundbreaking research and interdisciplinary collaboration, faculty members are at the forefront of understanding AI's societal impact and addressing complex challenges such as implicit bias and ethical recruitment practices.

McIntire’s Dorothy Leidner serves as the Leslie H. Goldberg Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professor in Business Ethics. An award-winning information systems expert, Leidner came to the Commerce School with more than 30 years of experience teaching and conducting leading-edge research. Her insightful work on the impact technologies such as AI have on individuals, organizations, and society has been featured in over 60 journal publications, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences Journal, and Journal of Strategic Information Systems, among others.

As part of UVA’s Darden-Data Science Collaboratory (DCADS) Fellowships for AI Research, Steven L. Johnson teamed up with UVA Data Science Professor Tom Hartvigsen and Carnegie Mellon University Professor Maarten Sap to explore identifying implicit bias in natural language using large language models. The goal of the project is to successfully develop models capable of quickly and efficiently finding toxic and biased language.

Sarah Lebovitz partnered with Data Science Professor Mona Sloane and Darden Business Professor Roshni Raveendhran to investigate the application of AI in recruiting. The research examines how human resources professionals utilize AI, an important study with major implications for the labor force in areas such as hiring, promotion, and job performance evaluation.

Be Part of McIntire’s AI Initiative

If you’re an alumni, academic, representative of an organization, or simply interested in learning how you can join the Commerce School’s AI initiative, please contact us today.

Alumni
Katie Whittier
Associate Dean for Advancement; Executive Director of the McIntire Foundation
whittier@virginia.edu
+1 434-924-3394

Researchers and Scholars
Ryan Wright
Professor of Commerce; Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
rtw2n@virginia.edu
+1 434-924-8501

Corporate Relations
Allison Teweles
Associate Dean for Corporate & Employer Relations
ateweles@virginia.edu
+1 434-924-0752

Programs at McIntire

Faculty & Research

It's more than an education.