Ohio State invests heavily in AI to prepare future workforce

By Farah Siddiqi

Ohio State University is making one of the largest academic investments in artificial intelligence in the country, announcing plans to hire 100 new faculty with AI expertise. University leaders say the effort aims to prepare Ohio students for a rapidly changing economy and expand research that benefits the state. Initial faculty searches are underway as part of the five-year Artificial Intelligence Faculty Hiring Initiative, which will place experts across disciplines, from engineering and medicine to humanities and the arts.

Ravi Bellamkonda, executive vice president and provost, The Ohio State University, said the guiding question is how AI will transform both education and research - when historians know AI.

"It is transformative in its ability to deal with complex, multi-dimensional, large data sets and make sense of it," he said. "What we're doing is two things. One is on the common story for the research piece and in the education space we are calling it AI fluency."

The new faculty will support OSU’s recently launched AI(X) Hub and its Education for Citizenship 2035 strategic plan, which includes a requirement that all students entering in 2025 graduate fluent in AI within their chosen field.

Bellamkonda said the university is expanding responsibly, acknowledging public concerns about AI’s carbon footprint while emphasizing that the energy use driven by global tech infrastructure far exceeds what a single institution can influence. Still, he said OSU is committed to being part of the solution and that integrating AI into education does not diminish the importance of critical thinking, it pushes faculty to rethink teaching in ways that strengthen judgment, ethics and problem-solving in an AI-driven world.

"AI is far too energy hungry and we need to deal with that, but it is not getting to get done by Ohio State deciding not to engage with AI," he continued. "At Ohio State, we're doing a whole set of things to tackle energy, to look at renewable sources of energy, to do battery research, to do energy storage."

Ohio State already has about 300 faculty working with AI tools. With the addition of 100 more, university leaders say Ohio will be positioned to compete globally in AI research, cybersecurity, health innovation, and workforce development. The first new hires are expected to arrive in fall 2026.