Professor Nir Kshetri on vital AI education for university students
Artificial intelligence (AI) is booming. The AI market is projected to reach $244.22 billion in 2025, with business and legal services making up 13.7 percent of the entire market. Nir Kshetri, professor in UNC Greensboro’s Bryan School of Business and Economics, specializes in how emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, Web3 and the metaverse transform global economies, organizations, and societies. Ksherti received a Fulbright Scholar award to conduct research in Nepal. He plans to focus his research on the impact of AI on higher education.
“No one should graduate from higher education without understanding how AI works,” he says. “I plan to incorporate my Fulbright research into my international business and cybersecurity courses.”
Cybersecurity education is vital
Kshetri is a leading expert in cybersecurity, with over 20 years of experience in the field. He’s written extensively on cybersecurity, including several books and hundreds of articles. In 2025, he was recognized by Secureframe as one of the top 50 chief information security officers and cybersecurity leaders making a meaningful impact on the industry.
“Cybersecurity is something that everyone needs,” Kshetri says. “At UNCG, I started offering a cybersecurity management course – it’s accessible for everyone, even those without a technical background.”
In the course his business students study how people and businesses are victimized by cyber criminals. He teaches how governments are responding in the regulatory landscape and the classes discuss policy changes.
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“I have written several articles about how different generations of AI—predictive AI, generative AI, and the emerging third generation known as agentic AI, which refers to autonomous systems capable of independent decision-making and goal-directed actions—can both help cybercriminals and enhance cybersecurity,” he says. “I’m arguing that on the policy, sociocultural side that more people should understand how AI and cybersecurity work so they can better use it and protect themselves and their companies.”
Kshetri feels passionate about educating students about the AI/cybersecurity landscape because it impacts data flow between the U.S. and other parts of the world.
“AI policies and regulations are different in different parts of the world. The way that data privacy and security are handled varies in these different economies,” he says. “It makes it complicated for international business and ethics in AI.”
University of Nepal teaching and research
Kshetri is currently hosted by The School of Management Tribhuvan University in Nepal, for his Fulbright Scholar work. There he will teach courses and help the university develop a curriculum around AI.
“I predict artificial intelligence will become a required course for all university students at some point. Many universities are already investing in faculty who can teach how it applies to different disciplines,” he says. “Universities will have to change their curriculum to add value for students, some of whom use AI and believe it can replace traditional education.”
Kshetri’s research will focus on AI in the academic sector – the subject of his forthcoming book The Era of Generative and Agentic Artificial Intelligence in Academia: From Disruption to Collaboration and Value Creation, currently under contract with The State University of New York Press.
“I’ll be researching the impact that AI has on universities from a global perspective, how they’re responding to it, and what may be the best way to deal with this,” he says. “For many students outside of the West, they do not have as many AI resources or access to it because many AI languages are developed in high resource languages like English and German.”
Prompt engineering
When Kshetri returns to UNCG’s campus, he plans to teach his Bryan School students that the basics of ChatGPT and other generative AI are not enough.
“When ChatGPT came out almost two and a half years ago, then everyone suddenly started thinking they were an expert. Just being able to use and get an answer from ChatGPT is not sufficient,” he says. “You have to think critically about the best way of asking things and to get the best possible answer – that’s prompt engineering.”
Prompt engineering is essential for understanding how AI tools work. Their limitations and biases reflect the information it is scanning.
“Students should not enter the workforce without knowing how AI works and they should always pay attention to all the tools cyber criminals are using,” Kshetri says. “Be aware of all the new techniques that these different actors are developing. It is essential for students and consumers who use the internet to know so they can safely use AI tools and protect themselves.”
About the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 93 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, 44 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
More than 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. In addition, over 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants — recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals — participate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad annually.
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, funded by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations worldwide also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://ful-brightprogram.org.
Written by Alice Manning Touchette
Photography by Mike Dickens, Bryan School of Business and Economics; and Jiyoung Park, University Communications
Graphics by Jaysen Buterin and De’Andre Gilliard, University Communications
