From Learners to Co-Creators, Rethinking AI Education at Thunderbird

How can students move beyond learning about AI to actively shaping it? In this episode, Kellie Kreiser and Euvin Naidoo share how the Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU is engaging students as co-creators of AI tools, research, and real-world applications. As Generative AI (GenAI) rapidly reshapes industries and knowledge work, educational institutions face a critical question: should students be trained to use AI, or empowered to help build and define its role in society? At Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU, a new model is emerging, one that positions students not just as learners but as active contributors to the evolving AI ecosystem. In this conversation, Kellie Kreiser and Euvin Naidoo discuss a series of initiatives that bring this philosophy to life. These include a recent AI conference and hackathon where students used AI tools to rapidly develop case studies in high-stakes contexts; the Principled Innovation for Global AI Fellows program, where students collaborate with faculty on research into the ethical and practical dimensions of AI; and student-led workshops that teach peers how to integrate AI into their career development processes. Looking ahead, they also introduce the concept of an “AI Hatchery,” a model that connects students with real-world AI projects, providing training, tools, and opportunities to build solutions with real impact. The discussion will also focus on the Thunderbird Case Lab, its newly released Global AI Case Collection announced at the annual Thunderbird AI Case Conference, and the planned new immersions for global educators on “Teaching with AI”. Together, these efforts reflect a broader shift: from teaching AI as a subject to embedding it as a participatory, practice-based experience. This conversation explores what it means to design learning environments where students are not just prepared for the future, but are actively shaping it. About our guests: Kellie Kreiser Kellie Kreiser is Executive Director of Global Impact and AI at Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. She leads initiatives that integrate artificial intelligence into global education, workforce development, and social impact programs. Over nearly two decades at Thunderbird, she has designed and scaled programs that have reached more than 285,000 learners across 180+ countries, often in partnership with organizations such as Goldman Sachs, the U.S. Department of State, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Her work focuses on building platforms and partnerships that expand access to entrepreneurship, education, and opportunity worldwide. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Arizona State University, where her research explores the intersection of AI, creativity, and emerging technology adoption. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelliekreiser/ Euvin Naidoo Euvin Naidoo is Distinguished Professor of Practice in Global Accounting, Risk and Agility at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. He teaches financial reporting and controls (Accounting) and leads one of the school’s flagship programs on artificial intelligence and the future of work. He also serves as Chairman of Thunderbird’s Curriculum and Learning Outcomes Committee (CLOC) and directs the award-winning Thunderbird Case Series and Lab, which, under his leadership, has been ranked Top 10 in the US and Top 20 globally for the past three years in a row. Prior to joining Thunderbird, Euvin served on the full-time faculty at Harvard Business School, his alma mater, where he pioneered the school’s first Agile Short Intensive Programs focused on best practices for enterprise-wide agile transformations. A global consulting and banking veteran, Naidoo brings deep industry experience to shape programs—he was previously a Partner and Managing Director at the Boston Consulting Group, co-leading banking, insurance, and public sector practices across Africa, and served on the senior leadership team at Barclays Africa as Head of Strategy, supporting and helping manage a 10+ country banking ecosystem across retail, business, investment and private banking. In 2024, Prof. Naidoo received the global award from the UK’s Case Centre for Outstanding Professor for Case Teaching, recognizing the world’s most innovative management and business school professors in the classroom. In 2025, he was recognized by Poets & Quants as one of the Top 50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors globally. Selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, he has served two terms on the WEF's US Global Agenda Council focused on supporting US competitiveness across education, energy, and digital innovation, and most recently on the WEF's Global Future Council on the Future of Job Creation, examining the impact of AI and other frontier technologies across sectors. https://poetsandquants.com/2025/12/21/the-50-best-undergraduate-business-school-professors-of-2025...