At Duke University, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant concept — it’s actively transforming how staff, faculty, students, and clinicians work, teach, and collaborate. From drafting emails to generating schedules and translating complex instructions into simple steps, AI tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT are being adopted for a wide range of everyday tasks. Many community members report that AI helps them work smarter by freeing up time previously spent on routine chores, allowing them to focus on creativity, strategy, and higher-level thinking. Duke’s leadership has framed this shift as part of a broader AI revolution that is fundamentally reshaping workplace routines.
Duke has launched a strategic initiative called AI at Duke to guide responsible and sustainable AI use across the university. This effort includes training programs, pilots, and integration projects aimed at embedding AI thoughtfully into research, education, and operations. Leadership sees AI as a “thought partner” rather than a replacement for human work, emphasising that human expertise, judgement, and critical thinking remain central even as AI tools handle repetitive or time-consuming parts of jobs. Provost Alec Gallimore described AI as one of the most disruptive tools since the internet or even electricity, underlining the rapid pace of change and its broad impact on how work gets done.
Across different university settings — from administrative offices to medical clinics — AI has already shown tangible benefits. For instance, clinicians at Duke University Health System use an AI transcription tool that turns doctor-patient conversations into structured medical notes, cutting hours of manual work into minutes and allowing healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients. In other areas, faculty and staff use AI to streamline presentations, automate summaries, and organise complex data, all while maintaining oversight and verifying accuracy. In these examples, AI serves as an assistant that enhances human productivity rather than supplanting human roles.
The article also highlights how AI is prompting changes in teaching and learning. Duke computer science faculty are adjusting curricula so that students learn to verify and reason about AI outputs rather than just coding syntax, underscoring the importance of critical evaluation skills in an AI-augmented future. AI is depicted as a tool that can boost creativity and reduce drudgery, but one whose adoption must be paired with responsible use, human judgement, and skill development to ensure positive outcomes in the workplace and beyond.
