In today’s marketplace, artificial intelligence (AI) is driving the next generation of technology. As its capabilities and functions continually evolve, the Adkerson School of Accountancy is keeping pace.

“We’re serving our students and their future employers by emphasizing technology agility, specifically using generative AI tools,” notes ASAC Director Shawn Mauldin. “Changes to the School’s curricular are ensuring that our graduates are proficient and adaptive, ready to be effective in the workplace from day one.”

Courses specifically focusing on generative AI tools are the undergraduate level Accounting Analytics – formerly Accounting Systems II – and the graduate Advanced Accounting Analytics course. Both have previously incorporated traditional AI, which categorizes and analyzes data. But with the emerging ubiquity of generative AI, which creates new content, restructured the courses have been restructured to cover generative AI concepts and tools and develop students’ technology skills.

Accounting Analytics features modules that span foundational concepts, prompt engineering and practical applications like no-code tool development. Hands-on exercises have students acting as fraudsters and auditors in simulation cases and directly comparing the performance of generative AI against their own on complex Excel exams.

Advanced Accounting Analytics centers on proficiency in R programming, specifically data management, regression analysis and classification methodologies. Generative AI is used as an active learning partner, enabling students to rapidly improve their coding abilities and troubleshoot complex analytical problems more effectively.

Generative AI learning tools like Ernst & Young’s EYARC Experience platform are being incorporated into many other classes. Tax I, for example, uses generative AI cases to give students experience in prompt engineering and to allow them to “interact” with a client by simulating a tax return interview. The Auditing course utilizes the platform to introduce advantages and risks of AI and to give students guided practice in AI prompting.

Graduate courses like Advanced Managerial Accounting, Assurance & Audit Data Analysis and Tax Research similarly incorporate such tools.