AI and the Liberal Arts

Across the country, leaders are weighing the profound challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence presents to higher education and the workforce. At Wellesley, we’re making the case that AI will make the liberal arts more essential than ever. As Sue Wagner ’82, co-founder of BlackRock and a 2025 Alumnae Achievement Award recipient, recently told our students: The future belongs to liberal arts graduates who can use AI while critically interrogating its limitations.

Wellesley is preparing students for this future by teaching them to understand both the possibilities and the risks of AI. A critical part of this work starts with our faculty, who have formed the AI Working Group, led by Orit Shaer, Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Chair in the Sciences and professor and co-chair of computer science. This group draws on the expertise of faculty “super-users” to explore the technology’s implications for our entire curriculum. We also launched the AI Fellows Initiative to empower faculty across STEM, the humanities, and social sciences to focus on generative AI’s role in research, pedagogical innovation, and community engagement.

The momentum continued this May with a one-day event that brought together faculty innovators and local alumnae leaders in AI, as well as students and staff, for a collaborative campus exploration of how AI is taught, used, and governed. Participating alumnae shared their insights on the future of AI in a panel discussion and facilitated student workshops. The event served as a prelude to a larger convening this fall on the promises and perils of AI in higher education.

Students also have opportunities to gain fluency in AI. The Upskill AI program, launched this year by the Lulu Chow Wang ’66 Center for Career Education, provided a one-week immersive dive into hands-on, industry-specific skills. This training is grounded in the liberal arts: Julie Walsh, Whitehead Associate Professor of Critical Thought and associate professor of philosophy, and Eni Mustafaraj, associate professor of computer science, helped students explore the thorny ethics of AI. The urgency of this work was captured by Stephanie Georges ’85, founder of the Meraki Dignity Project, which uses AI for women’s health and wellness. She said, “AI is at a tipping point where we can really shape it, or it can shape us.”

“Wellesley is preparing students for [the] future by teaching them to understand both the possibilities and risks of AI.”

Real-world experience is essential, so we’re ensuring students have access to internships. Lucia Urreta ’26 used AI to improve 3D molecular modeling for cancer research at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Vicky Lee ’25 investigated AI reliability at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which guides both government and private industry on cybersecurity.

The shift toward AI will impact every sector of society—and our students will need to think deeply about what it means to be human. We are committed to preparing them not just to use this technology, but to shape it. In an era of automated answers, the ability to ask the right questions—to discern truth, context, and nuance—will provide our graduates with a compelling advantage and help them be of service to the world.