Smith Business magazine-summer24-paperturn - Flipbook - Page 24
75%
of organizations expect
AI to affect their talent strategies
within two years
State of Generative AI in the Enterprise, Deloitte (2024)
Photo provided by Mark Urbanczyk
“It’s a growing tidal wave,” says
Mark Urbanczyk ’02, who leads the
government AI & Data Engineering
practice at Deloitte Consulting. For
the last 20 years, he has witnessed the
growing interest in data analytics and
AI, helping both public and private
clients with their journey to become
more data driven.
“Around the middle of the 2010s, a lot
of progress and momentum started to
emerge, and then the pandemic really
sped up the digital transformation
drive across government.”
In November 2022, OpenAI launched
its free ChatGPT AI chatbot that anyone
could use to generate content. Similar
offerings from competitors followed,
igniting the current AI boom.
Mark Urbanczyk ’02
According to Deloitte’s 2024 State
of Generative AI in the Enterprise
quarterly survey, 75% of organizations
expect the technology to affect their
talent strategies within two years.
“It’s incredible to see the interest
across industries—particularly from
the business and executive leaders
who were not all in during the earlier
analytics wave,” says Urbanczyk.
Organizations at all levels in all
industries are trying to 昀椀gure out
how to integrate the technology—
and manage its risks.
“The question is how do you
use this technology to solve
business problems,” says Dean
Prabhudev Konana. “That’s
where business schools play a big role.”
Business schools need to train the next
leaders to 昀椀gure out which of society’s
biggest challenges and greatest market
needs can be addressed with AI.
“Business school graduates should
know how to make decisions using AI,
what problems it can help solve, and
what kinds of biases and unintended
consequences could arise,” Konana
says. “And they need to know how
to come up with the strategy and
governance for implementing it.”
That’s why Smith is going all in on AI.
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summer 2024
The school launched a new AI
center, introduced new AI curriculum
offerings, and hired new faculty
members who bring additional
expertise to an already strong cadre
of researchers studying AI. Faculty are
translating their research 昀椀ndings in
the classroom and using the latest AI
technology in experiential learning
projects with students.
One standout faculty member
to join the school in fall 2023 is
Balaji Padmanabhan, the Dean’s
Professor of Decision, Operations and
Information Technologies. He was one
of the 昀椀rst professors to bring machine
learning into an MBA program at the
Wharton School of Business. Now he’s
pioneering AI at Smith.
“Business schools are tremendous
enablers of AI,” Padmanabhan says.
“Research is always a key part of what
we do, as well as designing programs
to educate students who are actually
going to go out into the real world to
make these things happen.”
rhsmith.umd.edu
Photo by Tony Richards
GOING ALL IN