Postgraduate Course: Exploring the Future(s) of Artificial Intelligence (CMSE11708)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course aims to provide students with an understanding of how AI technologies are being envisioned across different sectoral and industry contexts (from healthcare to government to the creative industries, etc). It will provide insights into their potential to reshape specific industry contexts. It will also provide an understanding of the challenges various stakeholders have in evaluating the potential impacts of AI technologies. The course will be delivered by a number of guest speakers. Guest speakers from diverse disciplines will provide context-specific insights, ensuring that students are exposed to current trends and practices. By taking this course, students will understand how AI might be used to reshape different sectoral and organisational settings. They will also better understand how to assess and evaluate the claims made about the impacts of AI technology. |
| Course description |
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely regarded as one of the most transformative forces shaping the business and technological landscape. As industry leaders and analysts, including Gartner, suggest, we are only at the early stages of this revolution, with its full impact yet to be realised. AI is expected to drive innovation, reshape industries, and create new economic opportunities, but its trajectory remains uncertain. Will AI fundamentally disrupt existing business models, redefine expertise, and replace traditional organisational structures? Or will its evolution be incremental, enhancing existing workflows while operating within established industry frameworks?
This course aims to provide students with a critical and interdisciplinary understanding of how AI is envisioned across different industry sectors and to encourage critical thinking about the implications of these advancements. It will introduce students to some of the different trends and developments in AI being used to reshape different industries and organisational settings. The course will also provide students with tools to help them assess and evaluate the claims made about AI technology and its impacts.
By taking this course, students will understand how AI might be used to reshape different sectoral and organisational settings. Students will be exposed to real-world cases from industry speakers and academics with domain-specific expertise and experience. The course will give students an understanding of how AI is envisioned in different sectoral contexts. They will also better understand how to critically evaluate the claims made about the impacts of AI technology.
Outline content:
The course will cover the following broad topics:
- Emerging AI trends and developments and their sectoral implications.
- The potential of AI to reshape sectors and expertise, ranging from healthcare, government, manufacturing, creative industries, etc.
- The challenges associated with evaluating the potential impact of AI across different application areas and identifying speculative narratives versus evidence-based transformations.
Student learning experience:
The course will be delivered as a two-hour lecture session and one-hour seminar over the 5-week block. The first hour of the lecture session will be a lecture, and the second hour will be a discussion of a number of readings. The course will involve a combination of formal lectures, guest lectures and workshops. Industry speakers and academics with domain-specific expertise/experience will provide students with real-world examples, ensuring that students are exposed to current trends and practices. The seminars will involve workshops to allow students to envision and critically reflect on future scenarios of how AI might reshape specific industries. They will encourage debate on the implications of AI futures and explore both optimistic and cautious perspectives.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 4 (Sem 2) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
83 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% Essay (Individual) - 2,000 words - Assesses Learning Outcomes 1 and 2 |
| Feedback |
Formative: Students will receive formative feedback at multiple stages throughout the course to support their learning and development. This includes interactive workshops, where they will be encouraged to envision and critically reflect on future scenarios of how AI might reshape specific industries, receiving targeted feedback to refine their analyses. Additionally, a dedicated feedback session will be organised, allowing students to present and discuss their initial essay ideas. These structured opportunities ensure that students receive constructive guidance as they develop their critical thinking and research skills.
Summative: Feedback will be provided on assessment within agreed deadlines. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recognise and evaluate the different ways AI is being envisioned across industry sectors.
- Critically assess AI claims and hype - develop the ability to evaluate technological promises, distinguishing between realistic expectations and exaggerated narratives.
- Present and critically reflect on future scenarios of how AI might reshape specific industries.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cognitive Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Be self-motivated; curious; show initiative; set, achieve and surpass goals; as well as demonstrating adaptability, capable of handling complexity and ambiguity, with a willingness to learn; as well as being able to demonstrate the use digital and other tools to carry out tasks effectively, productively, and with attention to quality.
Understand how to manage and sustain successful individual and group relationships in order to achieve positive and responsible outcomes, in a range of virtual and face-to-face environments.
Communication, ICT, and Numeracy Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Convey meaning and message through a wide range of communication tools, including digital technology and social media; to understand how to use these tools to communicate in ways that sustain positive and responsible relationships.
Critically evaluate and present digital and other sources, research methods, data and information; discern their limitations, accuracy, validity, reliability and suitability; and apply responsibly in a wide variety of organisational contexts.
Knowledge and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of contemporary organisational disciplines; comprehend the role of business within the contemporary world; and critically evaluate and synthesise primary and secondary research and sources of evidence in order to make, and present, well informed and transparent organisation-related decisions, which have a positive global impact.
Identify, define and analyse theoretical and applied business and management problems, and develop approaches, informed by an understanding of appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques, to explore and solve them responsibly.
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| Keywords | AI,future,trends,sectors |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Neil Pollock
Tel: (0131 6)51 1489
Email: Neil.Pollock@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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