College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management | November 2025

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the November 2025 edition of our AI and Innovation Newsletter! This edition includes updates in AI, highlights faculty and staff reflections from AI conferences and trainings and shares useful resources and information to help integrate AI into your work.

AI FACULTY DIRECTOR NOTES

Why should students learn about AI?

To be competitive in the job market, students must develop proficiency in Generative AI. A recent study reports 80,000 advertised jobs require AI competency, offering 28% higher starting salary (Lightcast, 2025). Many of these jobs do not require Python coding experience. Over one-half of these roles are non-tech sector occupations — a ninefold increase since 2022. Effective prompt engineering alone can differentiate job applicants. A recent survey revealed that nearly 30% of hiring managers will not hire someone who cannot demonstrate AI proficiency, and about one-half are more likely to retain workers with AI skills (Bregel, 2025).

HRSM aims to lead in AI-integrated teaching and learning. Augmenting teaching materials with GenAI is just the first step. Please consider incorporating AI competence into a course learning outcome, proving students with applied AI experience. Collaborative learning empowers students to master prompt engineering, build time-saving bots, and critically evaluate AI-generated results. These skills help to prepare students for their careers. Collaborative projects can be facilitated using BoodleBox or the University’s ChatGPT license. Please contact me for assistance in developing learning projects or providing BoodleBox licenses for your students.

Drew Martin

QUICK UPDATES

Dean’s Innovation Fund — Spring 2026 Applications open Jan. 15. There will be an Innovation Fund Information Session on Jan. 28 for those who are interested in learning more about the process.

Congratulations to the Fall 2025 Innovation Fund award recipients:

RECENT AI TRAININGS

What is Copilot? Workshop: In September, Microsoft 365 representatives joined faculty and staff on campus to do an introductory workshop on Copilot. The workshop explored what Copilot is, how it works, and how it can support day-to-day tasks.

Coffee and Copilot Workshop: In September and October, faculty and staff joined together to have informal discussions about how they are utilizing Copilot to become more efficient. Sarah Davis demonstrated how she utilizes Copilot to streamline administrative processes. If you would like to see how Sarah uses automation to assist with her tasks, you can watch this recap video. Stay tuned for future Coffee and Copilot sessions.

BoodleBox training at HRSM: Over Oct. 2-3, Meredith Lancaster, Director of Customer Experience for BoodleBox conducted training seminars for HRSM. Meredith introduced BoodleBox’s new Assignment feature, explained how coach mode helps improve prompts, and worked through the process of creating special use bots. She introduced Vibebot to help build bots. Take a look at Vibebot.

BUILD YOUR OWN BOT (BYOB)

AI chatbots are transforming how we interact with technology, offering personalized, conversational experiences that can support learning, research, and engagement. This section recognizes faculty members who have taken innovation into their own hands by designing custom bots tailored to their academic and professional interests.

AI Negotiation Bot — Mike Watson, Ed.D.

Department of Retailing Interim Associate Chair

In the ever-evolving landscape of retail, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming how businesses operate. To help prepare the next generation of retail leaders, I created an AI-powered negotiation bot for my RETL 366 Retail Buying course. This innovative approach allows students to step into the role of retail buyers and engage in realistic negotiation scenarios with a virtual vendor. From concept to creation, this bot simulates the complexities of real-world negotiations, forcing students to consider factors beyond just price, such as production lead times, ethical sourcing, and long-term relationship building.

By interacting with the AI negotiation bot, students gain invaluable experience in strategic decision-making and ethical considerations. The bot challenges them to explore various negotiation tactics, analyze data-driven insights, and develop strong communication skills. This hands-on engagement fosters a deeper understanding of the retail buying process and equips students with the skills necessary to thrive in an AI-driven industry. Ultimately, this approach helps students learn how to navigate the intersection of technology, ethics, and leadership in the retail sector, preparing them for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

BrewSimPro — Scott Taylor Jr., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management

BrewSimPro is an interactive simulation bot designed for craft beer production and sales education. It manages a 12-week market simulation where students role-play as brewers, wholesalers, and retailers in the craft beer industry. The bot facilitates dynamic pricing, order management, and market trend analysis while teaching supply chain management and business strategy in the beverage industry.

The greeting it gives you when you engage is:

Welcome to BrewSimPro! I'm your craft beer market simulation guide. I help manage interactive scenarios where you'll experience the dynamics of the craft beer industry through the roles of brewer, wholesaler, or retailer. Each role faces unique challenges and decisions in our 12-week simulation. What role would you like to take on today?

AI RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT

HRSM AI Test Drive Grant: $750

Deadline: Dec. 1, 2025

Purpose

New AI products present exciting opportunities to improve how we work and learn. For HRSM to keep abreast of these new products, the AI test drive grant is now offered to faculty and staff.  The grant’s purpose is to encourage faculty and staff to learn about cutting edge tools that could be later adopted by HRSM. AI products currently available to the university are not considered new AI products. For example, a ChatGPT grant request would not be eligible. Also, the product needs to be new to the applicant and not previously awarded as a test drive grant. A limited number of competitive grant opportunities will be awarded to HRSM faculty and staff who complete an application and fulfill the requirements.

How the Grant Works

The employee completes an application that includes a description of the product and how the product will support the grant’s purpose.

Because these new products have not received ITS approval, grant awardees must use their personal computers. The awardee must subscribe to at least three months of use of the AI product and exercise good faith in learning about how best to use the product for work-related tasks.

On April 17, the awardee must be available to make a short presentation to HRSM to demonstrate how the product works. A short, written description also should be sent to the AI-Future’s committee that includes strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations.

After all the grant requirements are completed, the applicant will be awarded the grant. 

Apply for the AI Test Drive Grant

UPCOMING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Nov. 14, 11 a.m. – noon, AI Enthusiasts: Anyone who is interested in sharing and discussing AI for teaching and learning is invited to join the AI Enthusiasts at Close-Hipp 602-B. Both the curious beginner and the AI innovator are invited. Please come with your questions and ideas for using evolving AI technology for teaching and learning.

Nov. 19, 9-10:30 a.m., Coffee and Copilot

AI at USC: Empowering Innovation Across Campus
At the October Staff Senate meeting, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO Brice Bible shared exciting updates about USC’s AI initiatives. Two key highlights:

AI Educators at the University of South Carolina

The new AI Educator team — part of the Division of Information Technology — helps faculty and staff integrate artificial intelligence into teaching, learning, and research. They offer tailored trainings, classroom consultations, and presentations to make AI practical and engaging.  

To request a session, visit sc.edu/ithelp, search “artificial intelligence,” and request a training or presentation consultation.

Thank you for reading this month's AI and Innovation Newsletter. Stay tuned for more AI and Innovation updates by visiting the Office of Innovation webpage.