Artificial intelligence is shaking up the economy and society. It’s also redefining the skills students need to succeed in their careers.
Some estimates project that up to 55% of jobs in the U.S. will be reshaped by AI in the next few years, with up to 15% of American jobs eliminated over the next five years.
Georgetown is preparing students for this evolving job market through new programs, coursework and comprehensive resources to empower them to thrive in their careers.
At the same time, students are learning how to use AI guided by a set of ethics and values that place people first. These values mirror those principles recently outlined by the Catholic Church and Pope Leo, who just published his first papal encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” which warns against the possible pitfalls of artificial intelligence.
“AI is profoundly shaping how we work and relate with one another. At Georgetown, we are preparing our students to use AI to be competitive in the workplace across every industry,” said Georgetown Interim Provost Soyica Colbert. “Guided by our Catholic, Jesuit values, we train students to use AI responsibly and to always consider how AI is affecting real people and communities.”
Learn about how Georgetown is preparing students to harness the capabilities of AI and become principled leaders who will lead the future of the AI era.
Equipping Students With AI Skills
At Georgetown, students explore all aspects of AI, from the technical know-how to the big societal questions on how AI will impact society.
Sophia Dorr (C’27), a double major in music and computer science, learned about how AI is reshaping the music industry and what it means to be an artist in her Music in the Age of AI class. Despite having reservations about AI-generated music, the class made her rethink her relationship to AI as an aspiring musician.
“AI is not going to replace live music. It’s not going to replace music created by real people,” she said. “It can increase accessibility in a lot of ways because music theory is not easy to understand, and these composition techniques are not easy to learn in different software.”
Dorr also wanted to understand the technical aspects of AI and took a computer science elective, LLMs for Computational Linguistics, in the College of Arts & Sciences.
In the course, students study the technical underpinnings of large language models (LLM) and how they can be applied to natural language processing, linguistics and cognitive science. Dorr learned to train language models and implement basic interpretability techniques.
Outside of class, students also have opportunities to develop their AI skills through AI-centric research projects alongside faculty experts.
As a research assistant at the Massive Data Institute, Dorr has contributed to a project on using LLMs to classify legal documents. Her coursework on AI has allowed her to better understand the research problems she encounters in her work, she said.
Dorr hopes to pursue a dual career in both computer science and opera singing. She said learning about AI in her coursework has prepared her for wherever her career leads.
“It takes away a lot of the mystery. It makes a lot more sense to me now,” she said. “Outside of music and computer science, learning how to use AI and optimize your use of it is super helpful for anyone.”
Wrestling With the Ethical Questions of AI
Outside of teaching technical competency and the impacts of AI, Georgetown is also preparing students to be leaders in managing the thorny ethical issues presented by AI.
“AI is rapidly encroaching on our lives in a variety of ways. We’re using it all over the place, and we need to think carefully about how we’re using it, how it’s being used by others and what kinds of ethical challenges that raises,” said Will Fleisher, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy who studies the ethical implications of AI.
Sabrina Gomez (SFS’27) first seriously considered AI in the introductory course of her science, technology and international affairs major in the School of Foreign Service. In class, Gomez learned about the intersection of AI and policy and how AI can lead to prejudiced outcomes that can exploit vulnerable communities.
She wanted to explore some of these deeper societal questions around AI and enrolled in Fleisher’s class, Ethical Challenges of AI.
In the course, Gomez studied the ethical considerations of whether to use AI in settings such as healthcare, national security and criminal justice. The course helped Gomez better understand the risks AI poses to institutions and societal structures.
“It’s one thing for a student to use ChatGPT as a study resource in school, but it’s a completely other thing when artificial intelligence models are used to determine whether an individual is in the financial position to receive a loan or whether they’re going to jail because of a surveillance AI. These processes dictate livelihoods and reinforce long-standing racial prejudices.”
In Dorr’s computational linguistics course, she discussed the ethics around the amount of energy and water resources devoted to data centers fueling the AI boom. Those discussions have reshaped how Dorr interacts with AI.
“I think through my prompts [in AI] before I send them to make sure I’m optimizing this one prompt and not needing to correct it because fewer requests means less effect in terms of the environment,” Dorr said.
Assistant Professor Fleisher hopes that by studying the ethics of AI, students can be better equipped for their careers and as responsible citizens in a democratic society who care about how emerging technologies affect people’s lives.
“We want to be a place where students get educated by people who are doing the cutting-edge research on these topics, where they can go on and carry this into their lives of service in government, nonprofits and corporations going forward,” Fleisher said. “Trying to not just know the technology better and to be more efficient, but to think carefully about how we develop these systems to make the world a better place.”
Launching New Programs in AI Education
In recent years, Georgetown has introduced new undergraduate and graduate programs to prepare students to use AI effectively and ethically.
Starting this fall, the College of Arts & Sciences will launch a new undergraduate certificate program in artificial intelligence.
The nine-credit certificate will be grounded in the liberal arts and require students to take one class from three areas: The Problem of AI, which examines ethical, social and political dimensions of AI; The Science of AI, which focuses on understanding how systems work and their capabilities and limitations; and The Applications of AI, which explores the practical use of AI tools in disciplinary and professional contexts.
“The emergence of artificial intelligence has made a Georgetown liberal arts degree more valuable than ever. The habits of critical thinking that we teach students will be essential to understanding the ways in which artificial intelligence is affecting so many aspects of human society,” said David Edelstein, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. “The new College of Arts & Sciences certificate in AI will teach our students how AI works and how it can be applied, but also compel them to consider carefully the ethical and human implications of this technology.”
The certificate follows the 2025 launch of the Master’s in Artificial Intelligence Management offered by the School of Continuing Studies. One of the first of its kind, the graduate program prepares students to lead AI-driven teams and projects.
The program was designed after consultations with small firms and major technology companies like Microsoft to understand the AI competencies companies were seeking in new hires. Companies aren’t just looking for AI engineers but also professionals who can lead teams effectively with AI, said Frederick Lemieux, the faculty director of the program.
SCS also offers a certificate program in AI governance and compliance that prepares professionals to ethically and legally use AI.
“AI is a technology that is human-centric and is either mobilized by human needs or serves human goals. Therefore, the technical aspect is not enough,” Lemieux said. “Our strength is leadership and management at Georgetown SCS. We built the program curriculum around that reality.”
In addition to unveiling new academic programs, the McDonough School of Business recently updated its curriculum for its Master of Business Administration (MBA) to weave in AI education to prepare students to be effective business leaders.
Starting this fall, incoming MBA students will participate in an AI bootcamp to understand AI systems and how to use these tools appropriately and responsibly. Students will also analyze AI case studies to understand when AI adoption succeeds and when it fails. Students across McDonough programs will also have access to courses dedicated to AI.
“By the end of that bootcamp, every student, regardless of industry or background, should be able to ask better questions, write better prompts, interpret outputs thoughtfully and understand the ethical dimensions of AI,” said Sudipta Dasmohapatra, senior associate dean of MBA programs at Georgetown McDonough.
Developing AI Resources
Georgetown has also offered new resources to the university community to better understand and use AI.
In the spring, Georgetown provided enterprise Google Gemini licenses to students, faculty and staff. Gemini offers the university community a powerful generative AI tool that Hoyas can use in their work in accordance with the university’s AI guidelines.
“Since 2022, Georgetown has been engaged in multiple efforts to understand the possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI),” said Interim President Robert M. Groves in a February message to the Georgetown community. “New courses, pedagogy initiatives, and faculty-led discussions have prepared our next step: providing our community with direct access to generative AI to support research, pedagogy, and administrative work.”
While introducing this new opportunity to engage AI, Groves also cited the importance of emphasizing our Catholic and Jesuit values and Pope Leo’s early reflections about AI and humanity.
In recent years, the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) has developed a set of AI resources for the Georgetown community. Faculty or departments across the university can schedule workshops and customized consultations to learn how to effectively and ethically use AI in the classroom and the workplace.
CNDLS also offers a micro-credential in AI to all faculty, staff and students. The self-paced course empowers users to craft smart generative AI prompts while also critically evaluating AI outputs and understanding ethical, security and privacy concerns.
This fall, CNDLS will begin offering a one-credit AI course open to all undergraduate and graduate students. Students can take the course online or in person to receive mentorship from AI experts.
“What’s going to differentiate employees going forward is going to be the students who are better able to use the tools that are in front of them from the ones who are not,” said Eddie Maloney, executive director of CNDLS. “We want to make sure we’re preparing our students in the best possible way.”
Through the Academic Innovation Network, CNDLS and the Red House are also developing a university-wide initiative that will explore the interaction of AI and teaching and learning in higher education. The initiative will include public events, research, community and thought leadership on how to best integrate AI in the classroom.
Maloney said that CNDLS’ AI work ultimately serves the university’s mission of providing a holistic education that forms men and women for others in the Catholic, Jesuit tradition.
“It’s not just about caring for the whole person, but also about educating the whole person,” Maloney said. “We’re here not to just introduce them to tools that are part of a profession but are part of developing a sense of lifelong engagement of the mind. That inflects all of the work we do with AI.”
