TY - GEN
T1 - Teaching GenAI Readiness
T2 - 26th ACM Annual Conference on Cybersecurity and Information Technology Education, ACM SIGCITE 2025
AU - McCauley, Jennifer
AU - Glantz, Edward J.
AU - Nasereddin, Mahdi
AU - Bartolacci, Michael R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.
PY - 2025/12/27
Y1 - 2025/12/27
N2 - Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping business operations across industries, enabling new efficiencies in automation, decision support, and cybersecurity. However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack the technical expertise, financial resources, and implementation support needed to adopt GenAI effectively. At the same time, undergraduate Information Technology (IT) programs tend to focus on enterprise-scale AI development, creating a gap in preparing graduates to support GenAI deployment in small business contexts. This paper presents a curriculum proposal informed primarily by a literature review, supported by a Pennsylvania-based SME needs assessment survey to examine GenAI adoption challenges and identify key curriculum gaps. The model proposed is anchored in applied AI literacy, cybersecurity, ethical governance, and experiential engagement with small businesses. The model aligns with national workforce initiatives such as NICE and NSA CAE, helping to prepare IT graduates to bridge the AI readiness gap and drive local innovation through secure and practical GenAI adoption.
AB - Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping business operations across industries, enabling new efficiencies in automation, decision support, and cybersecurity. However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack the technical expertise, financial resources, and implementation support needed to adopt GenAI effectively. At the same time, undergraduate Information Technology (IT) programs tend to focus on enterprise-scale AI development, creating a gap in preparing graduates to support GenAI deployment in small business contexts. This paper presents a curriculum proposal informed primarily by a literature review, supported by a Pennsylvania-based SME needs assessment survey to examine GenAI adoption challenges and identify key curriculum gaps. The model proposed is anchored in applied AI literacy, cybersecurity, ethical governance, and experiential engagement with small businesses. The model aligns with national workforce initiatives such as NICE and NSA CAE, helping to prepare IT graduates to bridge the AI readiness gap and drive local innovation through secure and practical GenAI adoption.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105028730468
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105028730468#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1145/3769694.3771122
DO - 10.1145/3769694.3771122
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105028730468
T3 - ACM SIGCITE 2025 - Proceedings of the 26th ACM Annual Conference on Cybersecurity and Information Technology Education
SP - 101
EP - 106
BT - ACM SIGCITE 2025 - Proceedings of the 26th ACM Annual Conference on Cybersecurity and Information Technology Education
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Y2 - 6 November 2025 through 8 November 2025
ER -