From the office to the classroom to the clinic, the Duke community is learning how to work smarter with AI, keeping humanity at the center of innovation.
nevertheless anissa queen Although Queen is executive assistant to the vice president and chief information officer for Duke University’s Information Technology Division, she does not consider herself a “technical person.”
But one day about two years ago, someone in a department meeting suggested using generative artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT “as an intern.”
“That’s when my curiosity was piqued,” Queen said.
She started dabbling in Copilot, writing emails in a professional tone that reflected her personal writing style. She asked me to schedule upcoming deadlines and recommend ways to use Microsoft Excel more effectively when she needs to create a pivot table.
Once, when she needed to set up a printer at a conference, she asked ChatGPT to translate the incomprehensible instructions into a step-by-step guide “for people who only use their computers for basic email.” She even asked AI how she could use it better.
“I feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface of what it can do yet,” Queen said.
According to Gallup, the use of AI in the workplace has increased rapidly over the past two years. The percentage of U.S. employees who used AI at least several times a year in the course of their work jumped from 21% to 45%, and 37% of employees said their organization had integrated new AI tools in the past year. Research shows that employees are already saving up to 7.5 hours per week because AI can quickly perform routine tasks.
The AI revolution has arrived and is changing the way people work. It’s changing workplace and classroom routines while freeing up time for higher-level thinking, and we’re only just beginning to understand how that could impact the future of everything.
“This is clearly a very powerful tool, probably the most destructive tool humanity has seen since the Internet and even electricity,” said Duke Provost and Chief Academic Officer. Alec Gallimore. “It’s very destructive.”
Gallimore launched the AI at Duke initiative to guide the responsible and sustainable use of AI as a “thinking partner” to enhance research, teaching, and operations across the university.
Get your first glimpse of how AI will change the workplace in all the ways Queen has begun to reveal.
“This allows you to be more creative,” Gallimore says. “This allows you to focus on what you most want to do in your job, and let the AI do the things you need to do but don’t really want to do.”
learn how to learn
Yang Jun I remember when Google was first released as a powerful search engine in 1998, some wondered if universities would one day become obsolete.
“It was because the information was so easily accessible,” said Yang, the Knut Schmidt Nielsen Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Duke University.
It turns out that Google is just another convenient tool, not a fundamental change in higher education. Yang doesn’t know if the impact of AI will be similar.
“We are in a period of great uncertainty,” he said.
But Yang is adjusting what and how he teaches computer science students at all levels, based on a hunch that this “intelligence revolution” will require a shift in priorities. While AI is great for basic coding tasks, Yang’s students need to understand whether and how the AI’s answers work.
“We should focus on learning how to verify whether the AI is doing the right thing, and focus a little less on how to code in a particular syntax or platform,” Yang says. “The demand for advanced skill sets will increase, not decrease.”
Artificial intelligence is an integral part of life at Duke University, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu is available to all undergraduate students and some staff and faculty. Duke University academic leaders participated in a six-month “AI bootcamp” to teach AI tools in 2025
Combined with recruitment from the Governor’s Office and Duke’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), it also helped generate 90 project ideas. The “12 in 12” initiative, led by OIT, focuses on implementing 12 new university-wide AI projects in one year that will improve the management experience for staff, faculty, and students.
“By delivering these projects in 12 months, we are recognizing the fast-paced nature of AI technology,” he said. tracy fuseyVice President and Chief Information Officer at Duke. “When it comes to AI, if you’re not progressing rapidly, you’ll be left behind very quickly.”
Yang uses generative AI every day to understand how it can help his students, saying that AI is “basically a personal tutor, and a great teacher at that.” The main difference is that generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot can confidently generate answers to questions in seconds, but they’re not always correct and still require human verification.
And that’s where Yang believes his students can differentiate themselves, and why he’s shifting the focus of his classroom from syntax and boilerplates to rigorous specification, verification, and debugging.
“My suspicion is that in high-stakes situations where you really want to be sure something is right, it’s only going to get harder,” Yang said. “And you really need people who have the skills to actually reason through these very complex systems and make sure things are correct.”
AI in the doctor’s office
Artificial intelligence can be a useful assistant. Stephanie WorrellChief of Staff, Duke University Health System. Worrell, who suffers from mild dyslexia, was once so anxious about sending an important work email that she felt sick before hitting “send.”
She now has AI proofread all her emails, and “it completely takes away my stress.” Overall, AI saves her about two to four hours each day, which she can use for other creative and strategic tasks.
“This is changing the way we work and giving us the tools to work smarter,” Worrell said.
STEM Learning Technology Analyst ashley smith The “Enhancing Workflow” webinar for the Duke Teaching and Learning Center explains how AI can perform useful functions such as drafting emails, brainstorming ideas, organizing schedules, and analyzing information.
“We have a little mini-assistant who can ask questions,” Smith said. “If you’re having a busy day and don’t even know where to start, this can help offset some of the cognitive load.”
This is a great tool for performing repetitive tasks, like dictating after a visit with a doctor at Duke University Health System.
Since Abridge was implemented at the Health System in January 2025, more than 2,000 Duke clinicians have used AI tools to transform patient-clinician conversations into summary notes about patient encounters. something Eric PoonDuke Health’s chief medical information officer used to spend hours after seeing a patient each day, but now it takes minutes.
“AI can take a lot of the tedious and repetitive tasks out of people’s jobs and help clinicians practice on a more personal level,” Poon said. “AI gives clinicians more time to solve and address problems that are unique to humans.”
John RobbinsThe hospitalist and chief medical informatics officer at Duke Regional Hospital noticed two things immediately after using Abridge. I was able to spend more time with my patients and build a more trusting relationship with them.
“What I’m hearing from people is that they feel like they’re getting back to connecting with their patients,” Robbins said. “You wouldn’t think that technology would help us get back to the interpersonal nature of medicine, but I think technology can help in this regard.”
teach people to think
The emergence of AI was so sudden that we were forced to make rapid adjustments to discover where and how it could be most helpful. It’s important to understand its limitations and how to use it responsibly.
when Brynae Bento Last fall, she stood in front of a blackboard with the words “It’s Easy to Fool AI” scrawled on it as she took an Explainable AI class to break the chatbot she had built. It’s called DisagreeBot, and unlike other sycophantic AI applications, hers is programmed to disagree with everything you type.
“Claim that Taylor Swift’s best album is ‘XYZ,'” said Bent, executive in residence for engineering graduate and professional programs. “Or maybe your best subject at school is physics.”
After a few minutes, students started reporting that chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot always responded with surprising agreement.
Bent previously worked with Duke University Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Jessilyn Dunn A doctoral student creates an AI model that helps predict diseases using wearable technology. Currently, Bent is a faculty member conducting research on the responsible development and use of AI. She teaches her students to think critically about it.
“AI is a tool that can be used for good or harm, and it is our job to help students understand where the line is between good and harmful uses of technology,” Bent said.
In the classroom, Bent suggests, instruction should evolve to focus on critical tests rather than specific processes.
“In elementary school, you’re taught how to add, subtract and multiply, and we have calculators that do it all,” she said. “And I think the same thing is true for AI, because AI is about teaching people to think.”
AI may be transforming the workplace, but thinking remains a skill unique to humans.
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