How custom AI bots are changing the classroom

Faculty share cutting-edge AI tools enhancing student learning at the business school.

Between coursework, jobs, family responsibilities, and extracurriculars, many students struggle to keep up with the required reading and course-related review and studying.

New artificial intelligence tools are beginning to ease that challenge.

One example is NotebookLM, an application that converts course materials into podcast-style audio, allowing students to learn while exercising, commuting, or completing other everyday tasks.

NotebookLM was one of four AI tools highlighted during the W. P. Carey School of Business's recent Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT event. This series brings faculty and staff together to share insights on the impact of generative AI on teaching, learning, and research.

"We are finding ourselves in a fascinating inflection point for our school as we see the depth of work that our faculty are doing in utilizing AI Tools thoughtfully, while simultaneously learning every day as these tools continue to evolve and we make sense of them," said Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning Dan Gruber, who launched the series nearly three years ago with W. P. Carey faculty teaching leads. Gruber also serves as a College Catalyst for Practice Principled Innovation and co-founded the Teaching and Learning Leaders Alliance, a global consortium that connects business school leaders.

During the Jan. 29 event, Clinical Professor of Finance Atif Ikram and Associate Professor of Accountancy Scott Emett shared how they are using tools such as NotebookLM, CreateAIBuilder, HeyGen, and vibecoding through Google Gemini in their classes.

Ikram and Emett are part of the AI Enhanced Teaching Initiative, launched this fall to support faculty across W. P. Carey's eight academic units as they explore the responsible integration of AI into business education guided by ASU's newest design aspiration, Principled Innovation.

In addition to podcasts, NotebookLM can generate a range of study materials for students, including mind maps, timelines, flashcards, infographics, and presentation slides. Faculty simply upload source materials — such as slides or Word documents — that the application uses as its knowledge base.

"I was seeing many instances where student groups met to discuss a case, and several people hadn't read it — that was the pain point I was trying to solve," Ikram said. "At least they can engage with parts of it, or listen to some of the related material for the class. And for those of us who are visual learners, this is a cool tool."

Ikram also shared how he uses CreateAI Builder, an ASU-developed tool, to build AI bots that provide guidance on analyzing case studies. One bot, known as the "syllabot," reduces the time faculty spend answering common syllabus-related questions about course policies, grading, and course expectations. Ikram created the bot by uploading his syllabus as a knowledge source and providing instructions for how it should interact with students.

Emett shared how HeyGen can animate classroom discussions by simulating stakeholders to prompt debate. The tool can also generate a digital twin of an instructor to create walkthrough videos based on a faculty-provided script.

Emett emphasized that digital twins should be used to scale walkthrough videos, not as a default approach for teaching.

"For most applications, you should be using real videos," Emett said. "But if you're filming hundreds of them — and constantly stumbling over your words or re-editing — that can prevent you from scaling the number of instructor videos you can make. HeyGen allows me to dramatically reduce the time it takes to record short, low-stakes, high-volume walkthrough videos."

He also shared how vibecoding helps faculty without programming backgrounds create custom AI tools that can be integrated into Canvas pages using iFrames.

"It expands what is pedagogically possible by allowing instructors to prototype and refine custom practice tools without coding experience," Emett said.

Throughout the spring 2026 semester, faculty participating in the AI Enhanced Teaching Initiative will continue sharing their classroom experiences using AI during Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT discussions.

"Many of these tools featured during these events are being piloted with this group of faculty to understand their potential for broader impact, while others are already available across ASU," Gruber said. "We're really practicing Principled Innovation — it's a central part of this initiative. Seeing Atif and Scott present in this forum was inspiring and energizing for all of us - they are trailblazers along with the other faculty in our AI Enhanced Teaching Initiative."

Read more about how past Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT events have explored AI's impact on teaching, learning, and research in higher education.