The University of Tennessee is launching a new effort focused on one of the biggest questions facing employers right now: how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies will change the way people work.

UT’s Haslam College of Business has created the Institute for the Future of Business, a new initiative designed to connect companies, researchers, students and educators around the rapidly changing workplace.

The goal is broader than studying AI itself. The institute will focus on how technology is reshaping business strategy, workforce needs, employee skills and the way organizations make decisions.

Why this matters beyond campus

For East Tennessee employers, the timing is significant.

Businesses across nearly every industry are trying to understand where AI fits into daily operations, which tasks can be automated, what new skills employees will need and how quickly job roles may change.

The new institute is intended to give employers a place to engage with research and practical ideas rather than trying to navigate those changes alone.

That could be especially useful for regional companies that do not have large internal technology teams but still need to make decisions about AI tools, hiring and workforce training.

A bridge between employers and researchers

UT says the institute will bring together faculty expertise with real-world business challenges.

That means companies can help identify the questions they are actually facing, while researchers and students can study those issues and develop new approaches.

The work could include topics such as artificial intelligence, automation, data analysis, workforce development and changing expectations for managers and employees.

For students, that creates another opportunity to work on problems they are likely to encounter after graduation.

What jobs could look like next

One of the biggest workforce questions is not simply whether AI will replace jobs.

In many cases, the bigger change may be how existing jobs are redesigned.

Employees may be expected to work alongside AI tools, analyze more data, automate routine tasks or make decisions using information generated by new technology.

That means employers may need to rethink training and hiring even when the number of positions does not change dramatically.

The institute is positioned to study those shifts and help businesses understand which skills are becoming more valuable.

An East Tennessee workforce issue

The new initiative also fits into a larger regional conversation about workforce development.

East Tennessee is seeing growth in advanced manufacturing, nuclear energy, healthcare, logistics, technology and other industries that increasingly rely on specialized technical skills.

As those industries adopt more automation and AI, universities and employers will need to stay closely connected so education and training keep pace with what companies actually need.

UT’s new institute gives that conversation a more formal home.

What to watch

The next step will be seeing how deeply East Tennessee employers become involved and what research, training or partnerships emerge from the institute.

If the effort works as intended, it could become less of an academic center and more of a regional resource for companies trying to answer a very practical question:

What will our workforce need to know five years from now that it does not need to know today?