Harnessing AI To Enhance Critical Thinking

As AI advances, Teaching Fellow Bentzin helps evolve teaching at McCombs

When artificial intelligence burst into the news with the arrival of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022, Ben Bentzin recognized the profound change AI could make to society, the economy, and, of course, education at the Texas McCombs School of Business. His Teaching Fellow appointment allows him to share what he has learned with colleagues and students in a way that is helping the school embrace this evolution.

“AI can have a tremendous impact on our civilization,” says Bentzin, who had a front-row seat to the arrival of the internet and e-commerce during various senior marketing roles for Dell Inc. from 1992 to 2002.

“I thought AI could be as influential or more influential than the impact of the internet,” says Bentzin, an associate professor of instruction in marketing at Texas McCombs, where he has taught since 2007.

He immediately plunged into exploring AI, and within four weeks he emailed his McCombs colleagues, urging them to consider AI’s effects on student work and opportunities to integrate emerging AI technologies into courses.

Since Spring 2023, he has delivered a growing list of presentations, workshops, one-on-one sessions, and other activities to help McCombs students, faculty, and staff integrate AI.

So, the timing of an email recruiting faculty members to apply for a new Teaching Fellows program couldn’t have been better. Bentzin saw the platform as support for his ideas to help colleagues and students accelerate the school’s adoption of AI. He was named a Fellow for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.

“We can make teaching and learning better through AI, but we have to change the way we teach to achieve those benefits. It can be done.”
— Ben Bentzin, McCombs Teaching Fellow; 2024-2025, 2025-2026

In 2024, he launched AI in Business Education on Substack to provide strategies for educators, perspectives on critical thinking, and tips for crafting better AI prompts.

“Ben has always been an innovative teacher, and his work as a Fellow seizes that opportunity to be a pioneer and to lead faculty colleagues into the many ways that AI can positively shape the future of business education,” says Stephen Walls, who is assistant dean for instructional innovation and part of the selection panel.

AI demands better approaches to teaching

Teaching must change, Bentzin emphasizes. Most dramatically, he suggests moving away from written essays, an area where generative AI is rapidly advancing.

Instead, he encourages colleagues to move toward more oral participation, which is AI resistant.

“Students can and should use AI to prepare, but they still have to know the material to be able to participate orally in the discussion. There’s a double benefit to that, because in the working world, your ability to persuade others verbally is a critical skill,” says Bentzin, who leans heavily on discussion-based teaching.

“Students may be uncomfortable, but these are the skills they need to be leaders.”

His other suggestions include:

1. Coach students to use AI as a tool to feed their curiosity in the classroom and beyond.
2. Encourage students to use AI as a super-efficient tutor that can provide individualized attention, tailored examples, or even quizzes.
3. Use AI as a tool to design and improve assignments, anticipating that students are already using AI.

“In 2025, I would never write an assignment and tell my students not to use AI, just like I don’t tell them not to use a calculator for math,” he says.

Faculty support for AI is ramping up

Use of AI is growing at McCombs. Sixty percent of McCombs faculty members integrated AI tools into their Fall 2024 courses, compared with 48% in Spring 2024, Bentzin found after launching a recurring faculty survey on AI use.

Responses show 75% of faculty members planned to include AI in Spring 2025 courses along with increasing enthusiasm for preparing students for AI-integrated workplaces and careers.

Bentzin says the most unexpected result is that faculty members largely perceive AI as having enhanced learning outcomes.

“The positive trend was even more pronounced in specific skill areas: 40% of faculty reported enhanced assignment quality, 35% noted improved research capabilities, and 30% observed enhanced writing skills,” reports the Spring 2025 McCombs Faculty AI Survey. A smaller percentage believes AI usage has hurt writing and critical thinking skills.

The survey also shows a growing demand for resources to support AI integration through University-provided subscriptions, best practice guides, sample AI-based assignments, and faculty training.

Student support for Bentzin’s dedication and impact is also strong. He has been selected for several Faculty Honor rolls by his undergraduate, executive, and MBA students in addition to other teaching awards.

What’s ahead?

Bentzin continues as a Fellow for 2025-2026 along with his undergrad and MBA teaching roles. Based on his work as a Teaching Fellow, he is creating a new course, AI for Competitive Advantage. It is designed to help full-time MBA students understand how they can use AI to be more effective and productive and to learn better.

It launched this semester, and not surprisingly, there was a waitlist.

Story by Sandra Kleinsasser