AI For Leadership: Implementation And Evaluation Of An AI Education Program

AI education is rapidly becoming the next frontier when it comes to solving the world's grand challenges; however, ways to introduce AI to large complex organisations are still vastly understudied. To address this gap in 2021, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered into a collaboration with the US Air Force (USAF). The goal of this relationship is to develop, study, and evaluate different learning modalities and online/in-person experiences to introduce AI to the diverse USAF workforce. The USAF is a very complex organisation and its employees vary in terms of educational and cultural backgrounds, as well as in their work-related needs, demands and restrictions. The initial program started in 2021 and a pilot study took place. The pilot evaluated the content, pedagogy, and educational technology used in 3 different learning journeys designed for 6 different learner profiles. Findings from 2021 guided improvements for future iterations. The updated iteration of the learning journey was introduced to the second cohort of the program in 2022. Cohort 2 included 200 USAF leaders, managers and decision makers, and the learning journey consisted of a combination of synchronous and asynchronous online experiences, as well as an in-person active learning component offered on campus to a subgroup of the learners. This research paper will introduce the updated iteration of the program, the evaluation of the learning journey, as well as the overall learner experience.