St. John’s Embraces the AI Frontier: Preparing Students for a Human-Centered Future

At St. John’s University, artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just a trending topic—it’s fast becoming an integral part of how students learn, create, and prepare for the world ahead. 

“We’re focusing on using generative AI technology to help students understand how to live and thrive in a world shaped by it,” said Giancarlo Crocetti, D.P.S., Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Science, The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies.

From developing personalized AI tutors and integrating tools into coursework, to exploring how AI will reshape industries and redefine human roles, St. John’s is helping students become not just users of AI—but thoughtful architects of its future.

AI is a broad field split into two significant areas: machine learning and generative AI. Machine learning is the more classical branch of data science, which involves all the methods computers can use to learn themselves instead of being programmed to solve a specific problem. Generative AI is a narrower area that includes tools students are already familiar with, such as ChatGPT. 

According to Dr. Crocetti, the University uses generative AI technology to help students understand how to use it in research and experimentation. To that end, one promising area of exploration is developing an AI-powered tutoring system.

“The research we are doing is to see if an AI tutoring system makes a difference in students who might struggle to succeed,” he said. “With an AI tutor, you can have a tutor for different aspects of a student’s journey.” 

He explained, “A teacher ‘agent’ can be specifically tuned to material that a professor has developed throughout the year, so that it’s almost a mirror of a professor and knows that professor’s approach to different content. So, it’s not just about the subject—it’s about the actual experience you have in the classroom.” 

The AI tutor can be fed different examples of a professor’s style—everything from curriculum to writing samples, to audio and video—to deliver tutoring in the same style. 

“If I feed Shakespeare into the system,” he said, “it uses this sort of Old English style when it talks to students.” 

This technology will also be used as part of a system piloted for students who have not yet declared a major, to help them zero in on a particular field based on their strengths and interests. 

In the classroom, the University is adding a variety of learning modules to existing courses, which will help students harness the power and potential of AI. First, by incorporating prompt engineering (the process of crafting effective prompts to guide AI models) into classes, students will learn how to interact with generative AI tools effectively. 

“The second step involves replacing several outdated technology subjects within a course with AI-focused content,” he said. “Finally, there are classes that specifically focus on generative AI where we never did before, such as building up particular AI agents.”

According to Dr. Crocetti, the University is also introducing generative AI in certain degree programs, such as the Master of Science in Data Science, and creating certificate programs to help those in the workforce with upskilling. “This fall, we’ll begin to introduce classes that have incorporated AI into them to the extent that they warranted the change of the course name,” he explained. This includes: CUS 640 Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models and CUS 756 Deep Learning Models in Machine Learning and Generative AI. 

“In most courses, the first step for students is to learn how to use AI, not simply, ‘Oh yeah, I use Chat GPT.’ It’s more than that. The second step is to build AI systems, so in their software engineering career, in addition to building a website, they can create an AI-enhanced software platform.” 

The biggest challenge in computer science courses is integrating AI ideas into an existing curriculum. Students still need to learn programming languages from the 1980s, such as C and C++, as well as object-oriented programming and algorithm analysis. 

“That’s why the focus is on diversification,” Dr. Crocetti said. “We don’t want to put 100 percent of our efforts in one direction.”  

One area that courses will explore is the notion of the “human in the loop.” 

“We’re looking at what happens when an entire process—from A to Z—is replaced by AI,” he said. “Think of Concur, a tool that tracks expenses. You submit an expense, and it goes to a person. That person reviews it and looks at policies, and then it goes to another person. What happens when the whole process is automated through AI? What happens to the process itself, but also to the people in those roles? We call this the ‘human in the loop.’ Those people don’t go away, but their roles will change. We’re trying to understand this by doing different exercises.”

“Our role as a university is to prepare students for this new world and equip them with all the necessary tools to move forward. In the world of AI, we tend to lose the human side of things because we delegate more. My goal is to build a well-rounded human being in the age of AI. The people who are better informed will be better positioned to succeed.”

Striking this balance requires a conscious effort to ensure that AI remains a tool in the service of human growth, rather than a substitute for the learning process itself. 

“Everything you learn needs to be framed in a human process, so that AI serves us—not the opposite. Don’t delegate too much to AI, because the joy comes in doing things, not from having it done for you.”