xAI Faculty Fellows Cohort to Explore the Future of Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI

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September 02, 2026
Jeffrey M. Dennison, M.A. (‘16) /Marketing & Communications

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape professions, industries and higher education, a new cross-disciplinary faculty cohort at Gonzaga University is exploring what it means to prepare students to thrive in a world where AI is increasingly part of everyday life.

Led by Jay Yang, Reisenauer Family Director of Gonzaga's Institute for Informatics and Applied Technology (IIAT), the inaugural xAI Faculty Fellows program brings together 14 faculty members from across the University to tackle this AI challenge with a lens of human formation and Jesuit mission. The yearlong initiative includes faculty from humanities, business, education, health sciences, leadership studies, law and engineering, making it one of Gonzaga's most broadly representative faculty development programs.

The "x" in xAI is intentional.

"For me, the X stands for both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary work," Yang says. "When I looked at the cohort, I saw representation from every school and college. AI isn't just a computer science issue anymore. It's a question every discipline needs to engage."

The program emerged from conversations taking place nationally about artificial intelligence, but also from concerns Yang heard much closer to home. During Gonzaga's Value and Responsibility in AI Technologies Conference last spring, a student panel made a lasting impression.

"They don't want AI, but they need it. They want it, but they have concerns about it," Yang says. "Students receive very mixed messages. Some people fully embrace these technologies, while others reject them completely. For students who are preparing for careers and a lifetime of professional work, that can be confusing."

Rather than asking whether AI should or should not be used, Yang believes the more important question is how students can learn to navigate a reality in which AI already exists and is influencing society, professions and human relationships.

"We need to acknowledge its existence and its impact on humanity and professional works," he says. "The answer isn't binary. It's everything in between."

The xAI Faculty Fellows program reflects that approach. Throughout the academic year, fellows will participate in monthly cohort meetings designed to build AI literacy, foster collaboration, and help faculty explore the implications of AI within their own disciplines. Fellows will examine concepts such as prompt engineering, agentic AI, retrieval-augmented generation, and responsible AI uses while sharing ideas across academic fields.

Importantly, the program is not intended to turn faculty into AI experts.

"We are not looking for turning finance faculty to become AI experts," Yang says. "We need them to understand how AI is affecting finance as a discipline and profession. We don't need education faculty to become AI engineers. We need them to think about how AI is shaping K-12 and higher education and how students should be prepared for that reality."

By bringing together faculty from different disciplines, Yang hopes participants will learn from one another while identifying opportunities to rethink curriculum, learning outcomes, and professional preparation.

Under the program charter, fellows may develop discipline-specific curriculum roadmaps, propose changes to program-level learning outcomes, explore new pedagogical approaches, or create plans for transforming academic programs in response to emerging AI technologies. The emphasis is on long-term, program-level impact rather than changes to individual courses.

“It’s important for students to learn how to navigate and use AI in their personal and professional lives. However, it’s equally important they engage with AI ethically by understanding the issues and problems such as bias and sustainability,” says Tracey Hayes, associate professor of communication and leadership studies and participant in the xAI cohort.

The initiative aligns closely with Gonzaga's Jesuit educational mission. Throughout the program, fellows will engage with a “practice” developed by IIAT called C.A.R.E. that encourages reflection on clarity, authorship, reciprocity and effects when working alongside AI. The model is rooted in cura personalis, the Jesuit principle of care for the whole person.

"The goal is not adoption for adoption's sake," Yang says. "It's about helping faculty and students learn together and preparing graduates to succeed professionally and personally in an AI-shaped world."

The cohort will conclude with a spring showcase where fellows will present program-level changes and recommendations developed throughout the academic year.

For Yang, success extends beyond any single project or discipline.

"My goal is that Gonzaga continues to lead as a distinctive university in how it responds to AI," he says. "I hope we can treat AI as an opportunity instead of a threat. If we can bring together our disciplinary expertise, our Jesuit values, and our commitment to educating the whole person, we can help shape a future where students are prepared to use these technologies and to lead wisely and ethically with them."

The inaugural xAI Faculty Fellows cohort represents an important step toward that vision: a university-wide effort to ensure that Jesuit formation and AI-era readiness advance together. As the program charter states, Gonzaga's goal is to demonstrate that "Jesuit formation and AI-era competency are not in tension. They are inseparable."

Learn more about how Gonzaga's Jesuit values interact with AI
The Future of AI is Human