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SPECIAL ISSUE ON AI

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education: Embracing Opportunity with Purpose

Editorial The Spring 2026 issue of the Southwestern Business Administration Journal focuses on one of the most significant developments in contemporary education: artificial intelligence (AI). This special issue grew naturally from conversations initiated at the 2025 Southwestern Business Administration Teaching Conference (SWBATC), whose AI-infused theme reflected a growing recognition that AI is no longer a future possibility. AI is a present reality transforming how students learn, how faculty teach, and how institutions fulfill their educational mission. Chiu et al. (2023) link AI to opportunities for personalized learning, automated assessment, intelligent tutoring, and administrative efficiency. Throughout history, technological innovations have reshaped education. From the printing press to the personal computer and the internet, each advancement has changed how knowledge is created, shared, and applied. Artificial intelligence marks the next step in this evolution. Unlike earlier technologies that primarily delivered information, AI can assist with analysis, personalize learning experiences, support decision-making, and enhance creativity (Crompton & Burke, 2023; Tlili et al., 2023; Chan & Hu, 2023). As a result, educational institutions worldwide are grappling with important questions about how teaching and learning should evolve in an age of intelligent systems. Lo (2023) notes that concerns about academic integrity, misuse, and the potential displacement of traditional learning processes often dominate discussions about AI in education. While these concerns deserve careful attention, they should not overshadow the extraordinary opportunities AI presents (Miao et al., 2021). Educational leaders, faculty members, and students must move beyond a narrative of fear toward a balanced perspective that recognizes both the challenges and the transformative possibilities of this technology. Kasneci et al. (2023) report that at its best, artificial intelligence can be a powerful educational partner. AI-powered systems can provide immediate feedback, adapt learning materials to individual student needs, identify learning gaps, and offer additional support to students who might otherwise struggle in traditional classrooms. Recognizing these opportunities can inspire educators to recognize their vital role in shaping inclusive and accessible educational experiences. For instructors, AI offers opportunities to enhance, not replace, teaching. Intelligent technologies can support tasks that traditionally consume significant faculty time, including grading routine assignments, generating practice exercises, analyzing learning outcomes, and developing instructional materials. By reducing administrative burdens, AI frees educators to devote more energy to mentoring students, fostering critical thinking, encouraging creativity, and cultivating the interpersonal relationships that remain at the heart of meaningful education. Business education, in particular, stands at a pivotal moment. Today's graduates will enter workplaces increasingly shaped by automation, machine learning, predictive analytics, and generative AI. Employers expect graduates not only to use these technologies but also to evaluate their ethical, strategic, and societal implications. Consequently, integrating AI into the curriculum-through project-based learning, case studies, or interdisciplinary courses-is no longer optional. It is essential to preparing students for success in a rapidly changing global economy. The U.S. Department of Education (2023) notes that embracing AI does not mean abandoning fundamental educational values. Education has always aimed to cultivate informed, ethical, analytical, and responsible citizens. AI should be seen as a tool that supports these objectives, not as a substitute for intellectual effort, curiosity, or human judgment. Students must continue to develop critical thinking, ethical reasoning, communication skills, and disciplinary expertise. Educators must teach students to collaborate effectively with AI while maintaining the capacity to think independently and critically. Thoughtful governance is equally important. Educational institutions must establish policies that promote transparency, accountability, fairness, and academic integrity in AI use. Faculty development initiatives are essential to ensure that instructors understand both the capabilities and limitations of these technologies (Zawacki-Richter et al., 2019). Likewise, students should be equipped to use AI responsibly, recognizing issues related to bias, privacy, misinformation, and intellectual property. Explicitly addressing these ethical concerns can help educators feel more confident about integrating AI responsibly. The articles in this special issue examine the many dimensions of AI in education, including innovative pedagogical practices, curriculum redesign, ethical considerations, learning analytics, faculty experiences, student perceptions, and emerging research directions. Collectively, they show that AI is not merely another educational trend. Rather, it marks a profound shift in how knowledge is accessed, constructed, and applied. As educators, researchers, and practitioners, we have a responsibility to shape this transformation thoughtfully. UNESCO (2023) reports that the future of education will not be determined by artificial intelligence alone. It will be determined by how wisely educators integrate these technologies into teaching and learning, opening avenues for innovation that can enhance student success and educational equity. This special issue invites readers to engage with that question. We hope the contributions here encourage reflection, inspire innovation, and stimulate meaningful dialogue about the future of education in an AI-enabled world. By approaching artificial intelligence not with fear but with informed optimism and responsible stewardship, educators can harness its potential to expand opportunities for students and enrich the learning experience for generations to come. The first paper in this issue presents a case-based instructional approach to developing strategic judgment for leadership decision-making in AI-enabled workplaces. Using an AI-generated workplace communication scenario, students learn to analyze, verify, and revise AI outputs. The study introduces the Analyze, Verify, Decide framework, which emphasizes critical evaluation, responsible AI use, and leadership accountability in organizational contexts. The second paper explores a comprehensive review of current research on AI in higher education. It highlights AI’s benefits for productivity, personalized learning, and pedagogical innovation while examining risks related to cognitive offloading, critical thinking, academic integrity, bias, and equity. This review finds that AI can enhance productivity, personalize learning, and drive pedagogical innovation in higher education while improving accessibility for diverse learners. However, risks include diminished critical thinking, academic integrity challenges, algorithmic bias, and inequitable access. The study recommends AI literacy training, assessment redesign, ethical governance, faculty development, and robust human oversight to ensure AI supports rather than replaces learning. The third paper is entitled “Interpretive flexibility and the social construction of generative AI in education: A SCOT analysis.” It examines generative AI (GenAI) in education through the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) framework by analyzing 78 studies. The paper finds that stakeholders view GenAI as both a transformational force and a transactional tool, a source of cognitive augmentation and cognitive atrophy, and as a vehicle for digital empowerment and dependence. The conclusion is that effective adoption requires AI literacy, human-centered oversight, and robust institutional policies and support systems. The last paper proposes a Faculty AI Capability Selection Framework, a capability-based model for faculty AI development. Drawing on a spring 2026 faculty training course, the authors note that the framework helps educators match AI tools to teaching, research, and service needs across five capability areas: local inference, source-grounded generation, programmatic execution, workflow orchestration, and multimodal generation. The paper emphasizes AI literacy, human oversight, institutional guardrails, and flexible, capability-centered training rather than product-specific instruction. References Chan, C. K. Y., & Hu, W. (2023). Students’ voices on generative AI: Perceptions, benefits, and challenges in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, Article 43. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00411-8 Chiu, T. K. F., Xia, Q., Zhou, X., Chai, C. S., & Cheng, M. (2023). Systematic literature review on opportunities, challenges, and future research recommendations of artificial intelligence in education. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 4, 100118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100118 Crompton, H., & Burke, D. (2023). Artificial intelligence in higher education: The state of the field. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, Article 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00392-8 Kasneci, E., Sessler, K., Küchemann, S., Bannert, M., Dementieva, D., Fischer, F., Gasser, U., Groh, G., Günnemann, S., Hüllermeier, E., Krusche, S., Kutyniok, G., Michaeli, T., Nerdel, C., Pfeffer, J., Poquet, O., Sailer, M., Schmidt, A., Seidel, T., Stadler, M., Weller, J., Kuhn, J., & Kasneci, G. (2023). ChatGPT for good? On opportunities and challenges of large language models for education. Learning and Individual Differences, 103, 102274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2023.102274 Lo, C. K. (2023). What is the impact of ChatGPT on education? A rapid review of the literature. Education Sciences, 13(4), 410. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040410 Miao, F., Holmes, W., Huang, R., & Zhang, H. (2021). AI and education: Guidance for policy-makers. UNESCO. Tlili, A., Shehata, B., Adarkwah, M. A., Bozkurt, A., Hickey, D. T., Huang, R., & Agyemang, B. (2023). What if the devil is my guardian angel: ChatGPT as a case study of using chatbots in education. Smart Learning Environments, 10, Article 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00237-x UNESCO. (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. UNESCO. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2023). Artificial intelligence and the future of teaching and learning: Insights and recommendations. U.S. Department of Education. Zawacki-Richter, O., Marín, V. I., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2019). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education—Where are the educators? International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16, Article 39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0 Olusegun Ayadi, PhD Editor, Southwestern Business Administration Journal (SBAJ) Volume 22, Issue 1, Spring 2026