As AI Majors Expand Nationwide, Arizona’s InfoSci Programs Emphasize Human-Centered Innovation

A recent USA Today article highlights a growing trend in higher education: colleges and universities across the country are launching dedicated degrees in artificial intelligence, signaling the field’s rapid rise and long-term impact.

Among the institutions mentioned is the University of Arizona, which recently introduced a Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence.

But as universities race to build standalone AI degrees, another approach is taking shape, one that focuses not only on how to build AI systems, but how those systems shape society and how students gain experience applying them.

At the University of Arizona’s College of Information Science, students have long studied the intersection of data, technology and human experience. Beginning in Fall 2026, the college’s Bachelor of Science in Information Science (BSIS) will include a new emphasis area in artificial intelligence, expanding opportunities for students to engage directly with AI while grounding their work in social context.

The emphasis builds on the college’s broader commitment to understanding information as a human-centered phenomenon—how it is created, interpreted, used and secured, and how technologies like AI influence those processes.

That philosophy extends beyond the classroom. Through AI Core, an experiential learning program highlighted by Forbes for its role in transforming the college-to-career pipeline in the AI age, undergraduate students gain hands-on experience implementing AI in real-world contexts. The program reflects a growing recognition that fluency in AI requires not only technical knowledge, but also practical application.

In parallel, the college recently launched a minor in AI and Society, designed for students across disciplines who want to examine the ethical, cultural and societal implications of artificial intelligence.

Together, these offerings reflect a distinct approach—the future of AI will depend not only on technical innovation, but on critical thinking about its impacts, and on opportunities to apply that knowledge in meaningful ways.

That approach is reinforced at the graduate level. The college’s Master of Science in Information Science continues to rank among the nation’s top machine learning programs, underscoring a long-standing commitment to advancing both the technical and societal dimensions of emerging technologies.

While other AI degrees often focus heavily on computation and engineering, the BSIS program approaches AI as part of a larger ecosystem, one that includes people, institutions and values. Students learn to ask not just what AI can do, but what it should do, who it serves and how it reshapes access, equity and knowledge.

As interest in AI education continues to grow, programs like those in the College of Information Science point to a broader evolution in the field, recognizing that the most important questions about artificial intelligence are not purely technical. They are human.
  

Learn more about the Bachelor’s in Information Science, the AI and Society minor and AI Core at the College of Information Science.