Ferris State University’s new Artificial Intelligence for Everyone course will be coming to campus in the fall of 2026.
Students can find this course labeled under ARTI 200, and it will count as a general education and social awareness credit.
The course will be taught by the director of cybersecurity and data science at Ferris, Dr. Greg Gogolin.
Gogolin has worked in the information technology field for about 15 years prior to becoming a professor at Ferris State.
“Students can take an AI class and add it to their program without adding an additional class because they can use it as one of their gen eds,” Gogolin said.
He explained that the AI for Everyone course is designed to give students exposure to a variety of different AI technologies. and students can apply these skills to a wide range of different scenarios. Some students may find this course beneficial for industries such as marketing and health care.
Gogolin began developing the AI program five years ago and has made continuous enhancements throughout that time.
“In the beginning, we had to focus a lot more on groundwork because five years ago, nobody was familiar with AI,” Gogolin said.
He said it was not until ChatGPT was released that people began to understand the possible uses of AI.
When the program first started to launch, Gogolin explained that students had to code from scratch to get a starting point, whereas now there is significantly more support to help refine and debug applications quickly.
“The technology that supports the application is much stronger than it was five years ago,” Gobolin said. “So you can make a more robust application.”
He explained that the technologies students will learn in class could help with employers and future job prospects.
Students will learn to write AI applications in different subsets, including machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and large language models.
“Employers still don’t understand AI technology and how it fits into their business cases,” Gogolin said.
He explained that there are not many people who have graduated and gone back to develop AI skills.
Gogolin said if students have taken at least one AI course, they will be more knowledgeable in AI than just about anybody they will be working with.
There are many businesses and organizations around the world that have tried to dive into AI implementations before they are ready. Gogolin described AI as a tool that changes workflows by making processes more efficient.
Students may not be aware of the changes AI will bring to the workforce. Gogolin expressed that companies are laying people off, and the general consensus from the public is that AI is taking over their jobs.
“Companies often use AI as a scapegoat to cover up general layoffs,” Gogolin said.
However, Gogolin said AI will not be replacing jobs, at least not anytime soon, as there are not enough people in every industry who understand AI well enough for it to fully replace humans.
“Not in the near future,” Gogolin said. “That’s just not the case.”
He explained that companies would have to completely restructure their data for it to even be feasible, adding that applications using that kind of data would take years to develop.
On the other side of the issue, Gogolin acknowledged the strong need for an AI-focused course.
He said companies are not spending enough time training employees on emerging technologies.
Gogolin explained that by understanding these concepts, students could help prevent companies from making costly mistakes.
Another reason for implementing this course is due to Gogolin’s concerns over the impact hackers could have on cybersecurity. He explained how individuals interested in sophisticated hacking could use AI to develop enhanced methods.
“Myself and other faculty members thought we’d better get an AI course started because it’s so important not only for business but for the future of cybersecurity as well,” Gogolin said.
He said if you’re going to have adversaries using AI on the offensive side, you’d better have the skills to combat that.
Students can find this course listed as ARTI 200 with Dr. Gogolin being the main instructor. This course can count as a general education credit for any program, and for students interested in cybersecurity, more information can be found on the Ferris State University website.