Hussein Issa, Associate Professor, Accounting & Information Systems, Rutgers Business School
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to significantly impact the landscape of higher education in the coming years. As AI technologies continue to advance, they are expected to transform various aspects of teaching, learning, and administrative processes within colleges and universities. One of the key areas where AI will make a difference is personalized learning. AI-powered systems can analyze student data, including learning styles, preferences, and performance, to create tailored learning experiences.
This will enable students to receive customized content, assignments, and feedback, optimizing their learning outcomes. Additionally, AI-driven intelligent tutoring systems can provide 24/7 support to students, offering immediate feedback, answering questions, and guiding them through complex topics. These systems will complement traditional classroom instruction and enhance student engagement.
AI will also play a crucial role in curriculum development. AI algorithms can analyze job market trends, industry requirements, and student preferences to help institutions design and update their curricula. This will ensure that students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for success in the rapidly evolving workforce.
Moreover, AI can streamline the admissions process by automating application screening, predicting student success, and providing personalized recommendations to prospective students. This will help institutions identify the best-fit candidates and improve student retention rates.
In the realm of research and innovation, AI will be a game-changer. It can assist in data analysis, pattern recognition, and hypothesis generation, accelerating scientific discoveries and fostering innovation within higher education institutions. Furthermore, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine administrative tasks, such as scheduling, answering frequently asked questions, and providing support to students and faculty. This will free up time for staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Hussein Issa, Associate Professor, Accounting & Information Systems, Rutgers Business School, explains.
HappyFutureAI:
You once mentioned that generative AI can ‘empower’ students if used properly. What specifically do you mean by empowerment in that context?
“In this case, empowerment refers to the collaboration between human and AI. Basically, a student using AI properly will be able to do their work faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. AI can be used to enhance students’ learning experiences, fostering creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
They can use AI to enhance their learning. But that depends on the proper way of using the tool. For instance, copy/paste would lead to more errors, mistakes, and overall decrease in accuracy.
Moreover, it would not help the students learn the material. On the other hand, if a student uses GenAI as a tutor, AI can offer personalized learning paths, instant feedback, and access to a vast amount of information, enabling students to engage deeply with material and explore subjects from various angles.
Furthermore, it can help with brainstorming, to improve their writing/grammar, to generate an initial draft, to practice certain exercises.”
HappyFutureAI:
When did you start incorporating emerging AI tech into academic work?
“I am assuming you are referring to teaching. I was not teaching in the Fall 2023 semester, so I integrated it this Spring 2024 semester. From a research perspective, I started doing research related to GenAI from Spring 2023-present.”
HappyFutureAI:
Many observers think AI will make the jobs of many professionals redundant, including educators. What do you think about that assertion?
“I believe that GenAI, like any emerging technology, will transform rather than replace professional roles. It is expected to change the way people conduct their jobs. It is inevitable, in my opinion, that certain aspects of occupations will be affected. Repetitive tasks that require little to no human judgment could be automated for example and may disappear.
That does not mean that AI will simply replace people. It is more complicated than that. It will depend on the nature of their jobs, what tasks comprise their occupations, etc. What is certain is that occupations will change. Education is not different from others. Think of tutoring.
Schools used to have programs for peer mentorship and tutoring. Students can now use GenAI as a tutor. The same thing can be applied to teaching assistants, as an instructor can take advantage of GenAI to complete certain time-consuming tasks. In fact, the same happened with computerization of various tasks in the business world, and how it affected professionals around the world.
The same thing can be said about the industrial transformation resulting from automation, with many occupations disappearing, only to give rise to new ones.”
HappyFutureAI:
How do you think professionals can keep themselves relevant in a world of fast-paced AI research and development?
“I believe that professionals need not fear but embrace this fast-evolving technology and train themselves to take advantage of what it has to offer. It can help them elevate their usefulness by allowing them to focus their efforts on higher-value tasks.
In fact, now more than ever, embracing AI tools to enhance productivity, creativity, and decision-making processes is crucial. Building skills that AI cannot replicate easily, such as empathy, critical thinking, and creativity, will also be vital. In my opinion, the future competition will be “Humans with AI” vs. “Humans without AI”.”
HappyFutureAI:
Many people already struggle to differentiate the output from generative AI programs like ChatGPT as opposed to write-ups by real persons. Do you worry that ChatGPT will get good enough to write essays for students undetected? Also, how do you think a perfect generative AI model capable of generating perfect essays without detection will impact education? What are you doing to prevent that?
“The risk of misuse of any technology is always concerning. While this fear has existed for a long time with services like Chegg and Coursehero (where students can hire “tutors” to help them with their assignments), GenAI exacerbates these issues. Cheating was and will always remain an issue in education.
I am personally certain that GenAI will in fact become good enough to generate essays that are indistinguishable from students’ work, which would necessitate a shift in how we assess learning, focusing more on original thought, problem-solving, and understanding.
Sadly, this is not easy to address.
Educators will need to modify their assessments to coexist with this problem. For instance, if the instructor decides to embrace GenAI, they can encourage the students to write their essays WITH the help of GenAI, but encourage them to use it to create a draft or an outline, and then ask the students to add from their own (personal) experience. Other instructors may opt for assessments that are Gen-AI proof, although this may be difficult to enforce in reality.
But this goes back to the first point: if the students use it properly, it can be an amazing learning tool. And to be honest, while detection software may not be effective enough in distinguishing the different types of authors (humans vs. GenAI), instructors can resort to requiring the students to present their work in class. In such cases, the students will end up either exposing their cheating or learning the material.
Similarly, exams and quizzes serve as a benchmark, allowing instructors to discern which students have genuinely grasped the material and which ones have not.”
HappyFutureAI:
You mentioned you’ve been good with computers since you were a child. How did you use tech to augment your academic work before the emergence of AI?
“That’s a difficult question 😊 I always took advantage of existing technologies like machine learning to identify patterns and outliers (which is the focus of my research area), visualization (to explore and represent the data), robotic process automation (to collect data and automate certain tasks). I had to either use readily available tools or write my (own) programs (using programming languages).”
HappyFutureAI:
Do you think there are scenarios where students shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT? What are some examples of those scenarios?
“In my opinion, students (and professionals in general) should not fully rely on GenAI without proper verification. There are indeed scenarios where reliance on ChatGPT isn’t advisable, such as developing critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, and understanding foundational knowledge without shortcuts.
Other areas where reliance on GenAI would be risky are tasks that require personal insights, experiences, or ethical judgment. This refers back to our previous point (pertaining to) the proper use GenAI. I always repeat to my students that if everything they do is completed by GenAI, why would any company hire them?
That company would simply subscribe to GenAI themselves and save their money! For the students to remain valuable enough to be hired, they need to bring something new to the table. They need to add more value to GenAI responses. Simply put, they need to think outside of the box, and currently only humans can do that.”
HappyFutureAI:
ChatGPT and other generative AI models have been known to make incorrect statements at a somewhat alarming rate. Do you have fact-checking measures to prevent the use of false information in the classroom?
“When I use GenAI in my classes, I emphasize to all my students that incorporating AI tools requires robust fact-checking measures.
I teach my students critical evaluation skills, such as using multiple sources for information verification, and highlight that they need to use their judgment and critical thinking when using responses generated by GenAI.
I show them instances of hallucination (where GenAI provides completely incorrect answers) and provide them with real life examples where such hallucinations led to catastrophic results for failure to verify the accuracy of the responses (e.g., the NY lawyer case in the news, where ChatGPT provide fake cases in legal brief).”
HappyFutureAI:
The median starting salary of Rutgers Business School MBA graduates is $113,500. Do you think introducing your students to AI tech like ChatGPT is instrumental to such an impressive stat?
“That is sadly not something that I can answer directly. What I can say is that (in order) for students to remain employable, to succeed in this competitive world, they need to be equipped with skills that would make them more desirable to employers. Knowing how to properly use GenAI (and other emerging technologies) can help with that.”
HappyFutureAI:
Does Rutgers Business School currently have any policies regulating students’ use of emerging AI tech in academic work?
“While there are some guidelines developed by RBS regarding the use of GenAI by students, it is left up to the individual faculty members to decide whether they allow it (fully or partially), or ban it altogether.”
HappyFutureAI:
Academics are typically not inclined to support and actively advocate for AI tech like ChatGPT. How does it feel to be a trailblazer in such a field?
“I have always been a strong supporter of the use of technology, as I believe it is unavoidable, especially when it leads to improved efficiency and efficacy. GenAI is no exception as far as I am concerned. While this technology brings a new set of risks in education (especially regarding misuse of GenAI), I believe it is here to stay, and it will only get better with time. So rather than fight it, I decided to teach the students how to properly use it.”
HappyFutureAI:
You have written several papers about audits, and even one about incorporating AI in auditing. How do you think AI will affect the relevance of auditors over the next few years?
“Just to be clear, AI technology has been around for a very long time. My papers refer to AI as (in) machine learning, not only GenAI. That said, audit firms have been investing significantly in emerging technologies like AI, RPA, and more recently GenAI. As I mentioned earlier, GenAI will transform rather than eliminate the role of auditors.”
HappyFutureAI:
You’re reportedly (currently) working on duplicate payments detection and anomaly detection using clustering. How do you think AI can help with that?
“If possible, as that paper is still not published yet, I would rather not discuss it at this point. Thank you for your understanding.”
HappyFutureAI:
What are your predictions for AI in accounting over the next five years?
“In the next five years, I predict AI will become integral to accounting, automating many routine tasks, enhancing decision-making through advanced data analytics, and shifting the focus of accountants towards more strategic roles.
For example, I believe that GenAI will be used to draft letters, contracts, and even reports. Moreover, it can be used to summarize long reports and extract specific points from it. GenAI can also help auditors with certain analytical tools and even coding if needed. These are just examples of what I think will happen in the coming few years in the accounting field.”
HappyFutureAI:
What’s the most common criticism you face from colleagues and observers about your liberal attitude towards the use of AI tech in the classroom?
“I would say the most common criticism is the concern over academic integrity and the fear that reliance on AI might hinder students’ learning and critical thinking development. That said, I have not (really) had much criticism, but that may be because many of my colleagues have also embraced (to various degrees) this new technology.
Moreover, given how I transformed my courses and my assessments to allow for the use of GenAI, I preemptively addressed such concerns (again, to the extent possible).”
HappyFutureAI:
Can you consistently differentiate between an essay generated by an AI model like ChatGPT and one written entirely by a human? What are some telling signs?
“It is becoming increasingly difficult (and challenging) to distinguish between the two.
This is especially true when a human makes some adjustments to the AI-generated content. One way I found it makes it easier to distinguish the two is to ask the students to add some discussion based on their personal experience or ask about something we discussed in class.
But if the topic of the essay is general enough, it is close to impossible to differentiate between a human-generated response and an AI-generated one.”
HappyFutureAI:
You’ve been exploring the practical applications of AI even before the popularity of ChatGPT. What spurred you into researching and using AI technologies?
“My PhD is in Accounting Information Systems, and I was trained to use machine learning and data mining in my research. Moreover, as part of my training, I was always involved in research projects that aimed to bridge the gap between academia and practice.”
HappyFutureAI:
Do you believe in a standardized implementation of an AI-augmented syllabus as the future for accounting students in the US?
“I do not think that a standardized syllabus would be feasible, simply because not all faculty have the proper training in technologies like AI. Moreover, it would strongly contradict academic freedom, of which I am a big advocate.
I think faculty can be encouraged to incorporate GenAI in their courses or be offered readily available tools that would facilitate such integration. But I do not think we can at this point standardize it.
After all, accounting students go for professional certificates such as CPA and CMA, to name a few, and therefore the curriculum needs to provide the students with the proper foundation to eventually pass those professional exams.”