Amplify Oshkosh, a program of the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, held its annual conference last month and I was eager to attend the event titled “Amplify IT – Artificial Intelligence: What’s Next in AI?”
The event was held at UW Oshkosh’s Culver Family Welcome Center April 8 and featured seven leaders who shared how their organizations are using AI and what the future holds for the massively disruptive technology.
One session I found particularly interesting was presented by Seon Yoon Chung, dean of UWO’s college of nursing. Chung shared that the college is leveraging AI to address several challenges in health care education, where students arrive with varying levels of foundational understanding and may be lacking the ability to apply what they learn in the real-world context.
Ironically, one challenge being addressed with AI is students’ lack of comfort with in-person social interactions. In-person communication seems to be an underdeveloped skill in many students.
It sounds like a bit of a conundrum that AI is being used to remedy this, but then we were introduced to Maggie — an AI avatar used to create patient simulations. Maggie was designed to offer one-word responses to closed-ended questions. Maggie’s reluctant communication trains nursing students to ask better questions through practical experience and requires they change tactics to find the causes of Maggie’s ailments.
It may feel paradoxical that AI — a technology often blamed for eroding face-to-face communication — is now being used to teach it. But as the nursing program’s use of Maggie demonstrates, AI isn’t just a tool for efficiency or automation; it’s a creative and adaptive resource that can help fill gaps in education and training while also encouraging more empathic human connections.
The pace of change around AI still feels daunting, but I left the event excited about all the possibilities — for students, educators and the industries they’ll soon serve.
