John Hadjimarcou, dean of UTEP’s Woody L. Hunt College of Business
El Paso Inc. Reporter
John Hadjimarcou, dean of UTEP’s Woody L. Hunt College of Business
Artificial intelligence is becoming unavoidable in the business world, and the University of Texas at El Paso wants students to be prepared before they enter the workforce.
Beginning this fall, nearly 4,000 students at UTEP’s Woody L. Hunt College of Business will be taking a new course focused on business applications in AI, part of a broader effort to integrate the technology into classrooms as employers increasingly demand workers who know how to use it.
John Hadjimarcou, dean of the college, said AI itself will not replace employees, but workers who understand the technology could replace those who do not.
“There are so many applications of AI in business,” said Hadjimarcou, who has worked at UTEP for more than 30 years. “You can take massive amounts of data and ask simple questions to make better decisions, such as identifying the best vendor to provide services or products.”
The College of Business decided to create the new core course last year, he said. He expects 500 to 600 students to start taking the course in the fall semester.
The course is only the beginning, as the college plans to integrate AI into more classes over the next year.
“For about a year, we tested special topics courses with great success,” he said. “Students were very interested in it, and we felt it was something we needed to expose every business student to.”
A few weeks ago, Hadjimarcou emailed faculty members encouraging them to explore ways to incorporate AI into coursework while emphasizing responsible use of the technology.
The use of machine learning and AI in business administration is not new.
According to IBM, businesses have long used AI tools to improve cybersecurity and detect fraud. Companies also use AI to automate repetitive tasks, speed up content creation and improve predictive analytics for inventory management and financial forecasting.
Programs commonly used in workplaces include Microsoft Copilot — which UTEP students are allowed to use — as well as chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude, marketing platforms like Jasper AI and workplace assistants such as Google Gemini.
UTEP business student Samuel Beltran said avoiding AI in the workplace could put employees at a disadvantage.
“From my experience, most of the classes I’ve taken within the College of Business are against AI,” said Beltran, 20. “In their syllabus, they prohibit it. In that aspect, it might be a step backward restricting AI rather than encouraging it when, in the professional workspace, they encourage it.”
Beltran, a junior from Juárez, is interning with Félix Finance & Information Systems, a company that helps companies organize and automate accounting and budgeting systems.
He said the company encourages employees to use AI for data analysis and to automate routine tasks such as drafting emails.
Beltran said he wants to learn more about AI in business to better prepare for his career after graduation.
“It’s so important to teach students how to use AI and how to take advantage of it without depending on it,” he said. “It’s a tool, and we should treat it like that.”
On Wednesday, El Paso Inc. spoke with Hadjimarcou at the UTEP Business Administration Building about the growing role of AI in higher education and the workforce.
Q: Is there any concern about jobs in business administration and the business industry becoming obsolete due to AI?
We have not seen that yet. I don’t know if it’s going to happen.
The people who are going to lose jobs because of AI are the ones that don’t know how to use it. Other than that, I’m not concerned.
Will it increase productivity? Absolutely. Will it lead to loss of jobs? We don’t know yet.
Q: What sort of training is the faculty taking to understand and teach AI in the College of Business?
We provide resources to professors to take workshops and get certifications.
We have professors taking certifications through Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other reputable places.
We encourage our faculty to go to conferences related to AI, study how AI is used in the industry and share their findings, not just in published articles but also by sharing them within the college.
Q: What’s your opinion on faculty members restricting the use of AI?
There could be very few faculty members that are still holding back on AI. Personally, I’m not aware of any.
Q: When talking about using AI responsibly in school, how effective are the AI detectors?
We have to be very careful about using those. There are also AI humanized tools, where they take AI output and try to humanize it.
We use our judgment when it comes to the output from AI. Believe it or not, faculty members know and understand what’s AI and what’s not from their own use of AI.
The university has processes in place to deal with those kinds of issues if it does happen. Have we seen a major issue? No, we haven’t.
Q: Earlier in May, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed by graduates at the University of Arizona’s commencement ceremony after he began talking about AI. Are you familiar with that?
I recently saw the headline.
Q: I ask because I wonder what UTEP students in general think about AI.
I think it’s mostly positive. Students are excited about the kinds of things they can accomplish with AI. I haven’t noticed anything negative around it.
Email El Paso Inc. reporter Luis Rios at lrios@elpasoinc.com or call 915-534-4422 ext. 132.
El Paso Inc. Reporter
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