Fast Track to AI Understanding

No matter where you look and what your job entails, chances are you're thinking about how artificial intelligence will impact your work. 

Bauer College will offer business professionals practical AI training and application this fall with a new Mini MBA specialization in the technology. 

Registration is now open for the Bauer Mini-MBA in AI, which will be held on campus Sept. 29-Oct. 3. Like other Mini-MBA offerings, the program will include courses in business fundamentals as well as AI-focused sessions: “Overview and AI-Driven Decision Making,” “How Can Language Learning Model (e.g., ChatGPT) Create Value in Organization” and “AI Best Practice and Business Applications."

“The program emphasizes practical applications, enabling adult learners to apply their knowledge immediately,” Associate Dean for Executive Development Cheryl Baldwin said. 

In addition to networking with peers from across the globe, Mini-MBA participants will connect with Bauer College faculty teaching the courses. The AI overview and large language models will be taught by Professor of Business Analytics Norman Johnson. He says the benefit of these two courses is two-fold. 

“One is the current relevancy of that knowledge to the wider economy,” Johnson said. “Because many companies are trying to adapt their business processes to integrate AI, this knowledge is directly relevant to their current challenges. The second related thing is the value created from the changes that companies make. The courses look at how organizations can realize that value, whether through new opportunities, efficiencies, or ways of working. These are overarching ideas the courses address both explicitly and implicitly.” 

The AI application and best practices courses will be taught by Healthcare, Strategy & Technology Professor Ravi Aron. Through the coursework, Aron will review the different models of AI and which ones work best for what types of business problems. Participants will also evaluate an opportunity-effort-value map to help determine what AI solutions work best for different kinds of business problems. 

“This is the effort that you will need to make sure that you are not victim of AI hallucination or misunderstanding of your context,” Aron said. “That's the value map. Then we lead them to augmented intelligence. How do you combine human judgment, human expertise and AI system level functions?” 

In Aron’s course, participants will experience hands-on learning with AI. Professionals will bring their own business problems and in groups run exercises to find where they need to bolster capabilities. Aron says this provides immediate practical application to the participant's business and life. 

“I'd like them to actually get hands on and use things so that when they encounter a problem or a usage, they know where to look for the tools, how to fashion their own tools and solve the problem,” Aron said. 

Enrollment for the upcoming session is now open. Interested participants can learn more about all of Bauer’s upcoming Mini-MBA specializations here.