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AI at Lundquist: From Classroom to Cutting-Edge
From personalized learning assistants to advanced analytics for finance and augmented purchasing systems, AI is transforming the way business is taught and practiced. And the Lundquist College of Business is leading the way among business schools nationwide.
Our faculty are pioneering AI applications across disciplines, showing students not only how to use these tools, but how to question them—probing their assumptions, identifying bias, and applying them ethically. Whether it's associate professor of management and Inman Research Scholar Ralph Heidl's research on how AI shapes decision-making, or associate professor of management Alex Murray's work guiding students through building their own AI-powered business agents, we're ensuring that Ducks graduate ready to innovate, respond, and lead as businesses adapt—and new careers and industries emerge.
Preparing Students for the AI-Driven Future
At UO, AI is not an abstract concept for students. It's a skill set they practice daily. Undergraduate courses now feature hands-on modules in prompt engineering, AI-assisted market research, cost management, service request handling, and more. The following are some noteworthy highlights:
- Students in our introductory financial accounting course used AI to forecast five years of a company's financials and then analyzed the AI's output and assumptions, which enhanced their understanding of the topic.
- In an upper-division entrepreneurship course, students developed AI "cofounders" designed to assist in ideating, strategizing, and evaluating startup strategies.
- Honors students in strategic management coded and tested their own agents to address business challenges and opportunities they identified, demonstrating AI's potential to make various business processes more efficient.
- And our Professional Edge program began offering AI trainings to all UO students, enabling them to earn AI microcredentials they can take straight to employers.
Our approach also balances innovation with integrity. We've developed—and our faculty follow—clear college guidelines to ensure AI is used equitably and ethically, with transparency about how it's applied in teaching, assessment, and research. Students learn that AI is here to augment, not replace, human judgment.
AI Innovations, Real Results
Beyond the classroom, students and faculty are driving additional explorations and envisioning new use cases for AI:
- The AI Student Association worked with our faculty to develop AI Teaching Assistants—custom-built to answer questions 24/7, adapt to each student's learning style, and provide professors with anonymized insights into where students struggle most. More than 1,500 students have used these assistants across multiple courses, cutting repetitive faculty email volume by 60 percent and deepening classroom learning.
- Last spring, students revived the Quack Hacks hackathon to host the largest overnight event ever at the UO's Erb Memorial Union (EMU). The AI-focused event saw more than 100 students develop AI-powered games, job-matching platforms, map and audio translation tools for non-English speakers, and more.
- The newly launched Intelligent Futures Lab—a student- and faculty-led research group focused on emerging technologies—has partnered with real companies to build AI solutions in industries from healthcare to real estate. Among dozens of projects, student-led teams designed AI zoning and building code analysis tools to expedite wildfire recovery efforts for Los Angeles, automated business operations for several local firms, and developed a 92 percent accurate dermatology screening platform that took first place in the Oregon State University hackathon.
The Pace of Change
Clearly, AI is advancing rapidly, and here at Lundquist we've seen an extraordinary amount of progress in just the past year. These tools are bringing fresh energy to campus, sparking new ideas, and stimulating important conversations about the future of business and society. Exploring, experimenting, and iterating with new knowledge and technologies is part of what makes the University of Oregon unique—and it's why we're thriving in this moment. In fact, through my conversations with other business school leaders across the country, I can confidently say that the Lundquist College of Business is at the forefront of AI adoption and teaching.
Of course, what makes this progress possible is the investment and encouragement of donors. Donor funding is helping us build infrastructure, provide access to AI tools, and connect students with industry leaders who can mentor them in using AI for good. Together, we can ensure Lundquist graduates aren't just ready for the AI era—they're shaping it. Thank you for being a vital part of this exciting journey.
Go Ducks!
Bruce Blonigen
Edward Maletis Dean, Lundquist College of Business
Philip H. Knight Professor of Social Science
University of Oregon