Facilitating generative AI literacy in the face of evolving technology: Interventions in marketing classrooms

The emergence of generative AI (GenAI) has illustrated that higher education needs to adapt to the technology. Its speed of evolution requires that we adequately prepare students for an ever-changing landscape. Toward achieving that aim, we draw on the concept of interpretive flexibility, where the interpretations, uses, and outcomes of a new technology can differ and evolve over time, often with dominant stakeholders controlling the process. To engage marketing students in this process, we propose that they be presented with these diverse interpretations now as part of GenAI literacy. Specifically, we offer three small-scale pedagogical interventions designed to address this urgent need. Given the newness of GenAI, our interventions are designed to be infused into existing marketing instruction, instead of requiring a redesign of a curriculum. With each intervention, students not only significantly decrease their confidence in the accuracy of what GenAI produces but also see reasons to examine the implications of it. Both these outcomes, we suggest, could help to maintain interpretive flexibility required to properly respond to and guide the technology as its uses, impacts, and evolution become evident. We encourage educators to prioritize a comprehensive notion of GenAI literacy in their pedagogy to maintain interpretive flexibility.