DCU Business School has opened an AI Fellows Programme that gives selected academics funding and dedicated time to redesign a module around artificial intelligence. The school describes it as Ireland's first initiative of its kind, aiming to equip business graduates with the critical understanding needed to work in an AI-enabled economy.

Four Fellows are working on projects spanning entrepreneurship, accounting, learning technology and executive education. Prof Maura McAdam is building AI simulations of investor and mentor conversations, while Dr Julie Bertz is using AI-generated accounting tasks with deliberately seeded errors to train professional scepticism.

Prof Tim Hubbard is developing an AI-first learning platform combining AI tutors and decision simulations with project management, and Dr Mathieu Mercadier is creating an AI-inclusive framework for executive education covering assistants, no-code tools, agents and workflow automation.

DCU, a public university in Dublin, recorded group income of €342 million for the year to 30 September 2025, up 14.9%. Bertz's project draws on the AI Fluency Framework, developed by academics at University College Cork and Ringling College of Art and Design with Anthropic.

The structural driver is the push to embed AI directly into curriculum design, teaching and assessment, which the programme addresses by funding module redesign and sharing worked examples across the School.

Executive Dean Prof Theo Lynn said the programme will give colleagues "the time, resources and space to experiment, innovate and share what works." Fellows will also receive funding for AI-related training and software, with their work contributing to a wider culture of AI fluency across the School.

The programme forms part of wider School investment, with additional funding allocated to teaching and learning, research, industry engagement and AI capacity among academic groups, professional staff and the Centre for Executive and International Education.

For the sector, the Fellows model confirms that business schools are moving from generic AI awareness towards funded, module-level redesign led by individual academics.

Source: business.dcu.ie / dcu.ie / aifluencyframework.org