AI Skills Aren’t A Bonus Anymore – New Data Shows They’re The Price Of Entry

New student research from Kogod School of Business at American University finds employers asked 42.6% of students about their AI skills in 2026, up from 11.6% just two years earlier

A new student-led study from American University’s Kogod School of Business finds that the share of students who say employers asked about their AI skills during the hiring process rose from 11.6% in 2024 to 42.6% in 2026 – a 285% increase in just two years.

The report, AI at Kogod: A Three-Year Student Research Report, was authored by recent Kogod graduate Christina Eid (BSBA ’26) in partnership with faculty mentors. It tracks three years of survey data on how business students use generative AI, how employer expectations have shifted, and what students say they still need to learn to stay competitive. The research draws on 483 undergraduate and graduate responses collected across surveys fielded in 2024, 2025, and 2026, out of 609 total responses before filtering for non-Kogod and undeclared majors.

“AI is transforming every profession, and universities have a responsibility to ensure graduates are prepared not just to use these tools, but to use them ethically, responsibly and thoughtfully,” says David Marchick, interim president of American University and dean at Kogod when the survey was developed. “In just two years, the percentage of Kogod students who said employers asked about their AI skills during the hiring process nearly tripled. In another two years, I suspect that almost every employer will ask students about their AI skills.”

Source: American Kogod

ADOPTION CLIMBS WITH THE SCRUTINY

Poets&Quants named Kogod Best in Class for AI in its 2024 Best in Class Awards, based on the school’s decision to embed AI into every course and require practical skills like coding, data analysis, and financial modeling using AI tools. The new survey data gives that recognition a numbers-driven backbone, tracking the payoff in real time as students who came up under that curriculum move into the job market.

More than 80% of students report using AI tools for academic work in the past six months, with Perplexity and ChatGPT the two most-used platforms. Weekly usage has surged as well: the share of students using AI 11 or more times a week for school, internship, or employment-related tasks jumped from 6.2% in 2024 to 29% in 2026, a 367.7% increase, while the share reporting zero weekly use fell by nearly 75%.

Students are also recalibrating what they want to learn. Prompt engineering remains the top requested skill, but demand for coding and technical development instruction jumped 450% from 2025 to 2026 – from 3.6% to 19.8% of qualitative responses – a shift the report’s authors read as evidence that student interest is moving from basic AI usage toward more technical, career-oriented applications.

Source: American Kogod

A STUDENT-LED PROJECT

That growth hasn’t erased unease. Nearly half of students voiced some level of concern about AI and academic integrity, and worries about AI’s effect on future career prospects rose from 13.4% in 2024 to 20.2% in 2026. Roughly 44% of students say they’ve used AI as a shortcut or substitute for their own work at some point, most often citing time constraints and grade pressure.

“One of the things that excites me most about this project is that it reflects exactly the kind of learning environment we are working to create at Kogod,” says Casey Evans, interim dean of the Kogod School of Business. “Christina didn’t simply study artificial intelligence – she spent three years asking important questions, gathering evidence, and producing research that helps inform how business schools and employers think about AI readiness.”

For Eid, the report tracks a shift in the question students are asking altogether. 

“When we launched the first survey three years ago, generative AI was still new and everyone was trying to understand what it might mean for education and careers,” she says. “The data shows students aren’t asking whether AI belongs in business anymore – they’re asking how to use it responsibly, strategically, and in ways that make them more valuable professionals.”

Source: American Kogod

See the full report here.

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