Research indicates a fivefold increase in demand for AI skills, yet most schools still ban the use of ChatGPT. A recent survey found that 70% of graduates believe generative AI should be integrated into coursework, and more than half said they felt unprepared for the workforce. At the same time, 66% of teens aged 13-17 express interest in starting their own businesses, according to Junior Achievement data.
The disconnect is apparent: students want to build careers around emerging technology, but traditional education isn’t teaching them how. While schools debate AI policies, forward-thinking programs are already training middle schoolers to launch AI-powered ventures and solve real problems. They’re not preparing students for tomorrow’s job market. They’re teaching them to create it.
The most effective programs abandon traditional classroom simulations in favor of authentic business creation. Students don’t earn grades—they gain customers, revenue, and practical skills that transfer directly to college applications and future careers.
At WIT (Whatever It Takes), which I started in 2009, teens launch actual businesses and social movements that address real community problems. In the college-credit programs, students pitch for actual prize money, receive real-time coaching from successful entrepreneurs, and develop presentations that have landed participants in major publications.
We ask participants one question: “What problem are you passionate about solving?” We then provide the tools, mentorship, and structure to help them build effective solutions.
WIT has worked with over 10,000 young people, providing leadership and entrepreneurial education through hands-on experience. The results speak volumes—our alumni consistently report higher confidence levels, stronger college applications, and clearer career direction compared to peers who only engage in traditional academic activities or simulation business programs.
This shift toward authentic learning experiences isn’t limited to K-12 education. As the demand for AI skills explodes across industries, universities are also abandoning traditional lecture-based models in favor of programs that prepare students to create rather than just consume technology.
Universities Embrace AI Integration
University of South Florida (USF) made history as the first university in Florida—and among the first nationally—to create an entire college dedicated to AI and cybersecurity. The Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing will welcome 3,000 students this fall, with plans to double enrollment in the first five years.
The timing reflects urgent market demands. Research indicates a fivefold increase in demand for AI skills in U.S. jobs, while more than 40% of organizations report being unable to find enough qualified cybersecurity professionals. The National Science Foundation awarded over $800 million for AI-related research in a single year.
“As AI and cybersecurity quickly evolve, the demand for professionals skilled in these areas continues to grow,” USF President Rhea Law explained. “Through the expertise of our faculty and our strong partnerships with the business community, the University of South Florida is strategically positioned to be a global leader in these fields.”
Dr. John Licato, Associate Professor at The Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing, puts this educational shift in perspective: “AI and cybersecurity already touch every single job on earth. Universities everywhere are trying to incorporate these technologies into their programs so students can practically leverage them, but at the same time further develop their own critical thinking and reasoning.”
USF Provost Dr. Prasant Mohapatra told me, “We’re not just producing job seekers—we’re producing job creators.” The college leverages USF’s existing strengths—approximately 200 faculty members already conduct research in related disciplines—while positioning the Tampa Bay region as a technology hub.
USF’s bold move breaks from traditional models of higher education. Most universities incorporate AI courses into their existing programs. USF built an entire college around emerging technologies, combining technical training with business education because students need both skills to succeed.
Bridging the K-12 AI Knowledge Gap
Teenagers already use AI tools regularly. Data shows 63% of U.S. teens use chatbots and text generators for schoolwork. Yet most schools ban these tools or label them as cheating. This creates a problem: students learn AI exists, but not how to use it ethically.
WIT created WITY to fill this gap. Our AI platform helps teens develop business ideas and conduct market research to inform their entrepreneurial endeavors. Students learn to work with AI without losing their creativity or critical thinking abilities.
USF also works with younger students. The Bellini College offers workshops for K-12 students through partnerships with education programs. These sessions introduce kids to AI concepts through hands-on projects.
Dr. Mohapatra shared his philosophy with me: “We want to show kids that AI isn’t something to fear. It’s something they can learn to use responsibly and creatively.”
AI Success Metrics That Matter
Programs that successfully prepare students for an AI-driven economy share several characteristics:
Authentic challenges: Students tackle real problems with genuine consequences, not hypothetical scenarios designed for assessment.
Interdisciplinary approach: Effective programs integrate technology, business, ethics, and social impact rather than teaching these subjects in isolation.
Confidence development: Students learn self-advocacy, self-worth, and self-value through entrepreneurial experiences. These capabilities transfer to college applications, job interviews, and leadership roles.
Early exposure: Rather than waiting until senior year, these programs introduce innovative thinking in middle school and early high school.
Research supports this approach. A 2022 Gallup survey found that students involved in entrepreneurship programs were 34% more likely to develop leadership skills and 41% more likely to report feeling prepared for future careers.
The AI Competitive Advantage
Students emerging from these programs possess advantages that traditional education alone cannot provide. They understand how to identify market opportunities, collaborate effectively with AI tools, and communicate their ideas clearly to diverse audiences.
College admissions officers increasingly recognize entrepreneurship as a marker of leadership, innovation, and problem-solving ability. Students who can demonstrate how they built something from the ground up bring more than just an application; they get a track record of action.
These experiences provide rich material for personal statements and interviews while demonstrating the initiative and resilience that colleges value in their incoming classes.
Building Tomorrow’s AI-Driven Economy Today
Programs that combine AI literacy with entrepreneurial education create an exponential multiplier effect. Students don’t just learn to use existing tools—they develop the creative mindset to identify problems that AI can solve and the business acumen to turn those solutions into viable ventures.
The students graduating from these programs represent a new breed of innovator. They’re not just prepared for an AI-driven economy—they’re actively architecting it, armed with both deep technological fluency and the entrepreneurial skills to transform breakthrough ideas into market-changing impact. This represents a fundamental shift in educational philosophy—from preparing students for predetermined career paths in a static economy to empowering them to create entirely new industries and opportunities in our rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Advance, which develops artificial intelligence (AI) technology specializing in commerce, announced AI commerce solution “CommerceOS” at DevCon 3 of Palantir Technologies, a global AI platform company, held last month.
DevCon, held by Palantir, is a conference for developers and is an event where developers and Palantir partners attend to share the latest technologies.
Founded in 2021, Startup Ens is a company that provides commerce automation solutions using LAM, which performs real actions with AI.
Unlike Large Language Model (LLM), which specializes in language generation, LAM is characterized by performing real tasks directly and self-judging and executing tasks that can improve sales and operating profit.
By utilizing AI models specialized in commerce and retail, InS supports the entire process of data collection and refining, AI inference and analysis, and automation execution.
The “Commerce OS” announced at DevCon 3 is a solution specialized in the retail and e-commerce markets, where AI optimizes inventory and sets prices while monitoring sales of competitors’ products in real time on online marketplaces.
In May, Ince, which was selected as Palantir’s ‘Startup Fellowship’, showed the practicality and scalability of AI agent technology in the commerce area through the demonstration of ‘Commerce OS’, an AI-based commerce solution built in cooperation with Palantir at the Devcon.
“Through the announcement of DevCon 3, we have introduced our technical capabilities as a ‘Palantir in the commerce world’ to the world,” said Lee Seung-hyun, CEO of Ins. “We will spread cases of global business use in the commerce sector and open the era of AI agents in earnest.”
Amadeus has partnered with Microsoft and is leveraging OpenAI’s models on Azure to develop a suite of AI integrations that enhance its Hospitality portfolio. The two latest AI tools will provide hoteliers of any background easy access to industry-leading insights and dramatically improve the efficiency of group bookings.
Amadeus Advisor chat is coming to Demand360: Making sophisticated insights instantly available
To help hoteliers stay agile and respond quickly to the fast-changing travel industry, Amadeus is integrating Advisor Chat, its Gen AI chatbot, into its industry-leading Demand360 data product. Powered by Azure OpenAI, Advisor chat offers immediate and intuitive access to crucial insights for teams across various functions, including sales, operations, marketing, and distribution.
Demand360 currently captures the most comprehensive view of the hospitality market to inform hotel strategies. Based on insights from 44,000 hotels and 35 million short-term rental properties, Demand360 provides a 12-month, forward-looking view of a hotel’s occupancy and its market ranking as well as two years of retrospective data.
Amadeus Advisor chat was rolled out to Amadeus Agency360® in 2024. In the year since, customers have enjoyed instantaneous insights. In some cases, Amadeus Advisor has saved analysts approximately a day each week as the bulk of requests can now be handled directly by the wider team. Amadeus plans to make Advisor available within Microsoft Teams, making it easier than ever to understand performance and make informed decisions.
Transforming group sales with AI: Email to RFP
Amadeus is introducing new AI functionality, Email to RFP, within MeetingBroker to help hotels streamline the handling of inbound group booking requests, a valuable, growing segment of the market.
With Email to RFP, customers will be able to email inbound RFPs directly to MeetingBroker, where AI is then used to evaluate it and create an instant RFP response. To provide accurate, up-to-date information that is specific to each location, Email to RFP will be trained to retrieve additional, relevant information from reliable sources. Email to RFP is powered by Azure OpenAI.
Omni Atlanta Hotel, the first pilot customer, has seen significant returns with faster responses and near autonomous RFP handling.
This builds on the current functionalities of Amadeus MeetingBroker, a centralized hub for managing all group inquiries, no matter how or where they originate. By consolidating leads into a single workflow, MeetingBroker helps hotel sales teams respond faster, reduce missed opportunities, and convert more business.
Amadeus plans to introduce individual AI agents for each of its products, helping travel companies to gain more value by answering queries more easily and more quickly. Amadeus is also working to develop AI agents that will draw on multiple sources when responding to queries, unlocking new levels of insight from across Amadeus’ portfolio.
“As an industry, we’re at an important juncture where the next year of AI development and implementation will shape decades of travel and hospitality. It’s becoming increasingly clear that AI is here to make sense of complexity and support productivity in order to enhance efficiency, return on investment and ultimately increase conversions,” says Francisco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, President of Hospitality, Amadeus.
BETHMEHEM, PA — Dr. Juan Zheng, assistant professor in the Teaching, Learning, and Technology program at Lehigh University’s College of Education, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to support her groundbreaking project, “Meta-Partner: Hybrid Intelligence for Self-Regulated Learning.”
Over the next two years, Dr. Zheng and her research team will develop Meta-Partner, an artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to help students set learning goals, adjust strategies, monitor progress, and reflect on their educational journeys—all while building critical AI literacy and self-regulation skills.
The project addresses a pressing national need: preparing a diverse and inclusive workforce for the rapidly evolving AI-driven future. “Millions are already using AI, but few people know how to use it in an informed and strategic way,” Dr. Zheng explained. “Our goal is to teach students not just the concepts of AI, but how to approach problems, think critically, and regulate their learning, skills that are essential for success in any field that will use AI as a tool.”
Meta-Partner will be integrated into AIResolver, an existing online problem-based learning platform. The system will guide students through complex problem-solving scenarios, such as designing classification systems for scientific research, by providing real-time, personalized support. As students interact with the platform, Meta-Partner will generate initial learning goals, create automated notes, visualize progress, and compose reflections, all of which students can review and refine. This iterative, human-AI collaboration is designed to deepen metacognitive engagement and foster independent learning.
The research will focus on high school and undergraduate students from non-computer science backgrounds, particularly in rural areas, to ensure the benefits of AI education reach underserved communities. Through a robust evaluation involving both quantitative and qualitative methods, the project will examine how Meta-Partner impacts students’ cognitive, motivational, and emotional engagement with AI problem-solving.
“We believe that by making AI education more accessible and engaging, we can help bridge the digital divide and empower students who might otherwise be left behind,” said Dr. Zheng.
Beyond teaching the technical concepts of AI, the project aims to equip students with software skills, critical thinking abilities, and the self-regulation strategies needed to thrive in a workforce where AI is ubiquitous. Dr. Zheng emphasized the importance of learning to use AI strategically and responsibly: “Just as the internet and online learning brought both opportunities and risks, AI will reshape how we learn and work. Our research will help students navigate these changes and use AI as a partner in their learning.”
Meta-Partner’s open-source design ensures that its impact will extend far beyond the initial study, allowing other educational institutions and platforms to adopt and adapt the technology. By pioneering the integration of hybrid intelligence into self-regulated learning, Dr. Zheng’s work has the potential to transform AI education practices and prepare the next generation for a future where human and artificial intelligence work in tandem.
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