AI is remaking the workforce faster than universities can decide how—or whether—to teach it

Amanda Cullen is just a few years away from entering a workforce in which AI is becoming harder to avoid.

But in most of her classes at North Carolina State University, the rule has been not to use it at all.

“Most of my classes have been no AI,” said Cullen, a first-year who expects to graduate in 2030.

Many of her professors have explicitly noted on the syllabus that AI is off limits, she said, unless it is properly cited.

While Cullen’s personal feelings about AI are mixed and she only uses it on occasion, she questioned whether banning it outright is realistic.

“If it’s such a mainstream thing in careers, we should know how to do it in school,” she told Fortune .

Finding the right balance between banning AI outright and allowing students to become overreliant on it is now vexing universities nationwide.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the technology has radically improved in less time than it would take to complete a typical four-year degree.

AI is becoming increasingly unavoidable in the work force.

A study by consulting firm McKinsey from late last year found 88% of companies are using AI , while a PWC study published in June this year found a 62% average wage premium for workers with AI skills.

At the same time, AI has made cheating on assignments—a perennial problem in higher education—much easier, and some experts have raised concerns that using AI models on coursework prevents students from mastering the essential skills they need for a future profession.

Second-year NC State mechanical engineering student Lauren Callen said she understands the concern over cheating that leads professors to ban the technology, but said she prefers when professors instead establish guidelines for using it responsibly.

“I get teachers not wanting to use AI for anything, but, I mean, the world’s changing, people are using AI everywhere,” Callen told Fortune .

One of her introductory Python courses, she said, incorporated AI into the curriculum rather than fighting it.