Deputy Dean Anja Sandström: AI is making physical meetings with students more important than ever

AI has entered our lecture halls and the Faculty of Pharmacy has dedicated the lion's share of 2025 to engage in external analysis and various forms of dialogue with teachers, stakeholders, students and AI experts. Via roundtable discussions in Almedalen and at our faculty's Undergraduate Education Days, the goals swiftly became clear: the introduction of purposeful AI in education and the responsible use of AI. However, local policies and new course syllabi will not be formulated as fast as the technology evolves.

As we speak with representatives from pharmacies, authorities, hospitals and industry, their response is unanimous: AI is here, but human expertise and pharmaceutical knowledge will always be needed. Not least to interact with new technology. The graduation learning outcomes for pharmacists and prescriptionists remain highly relevant – and AI will be a tool in achieving them.

AI can help us streamline, automate, analyse and produce text drafts. But critical review, ethical considerations and regulatory compliance are skills that students must master – and responsibility cannot be left to algorithms. In short: to use AI purposefully and responsibly, students must have both in-depth subject knowledge and an understanding of how AI works.

Opinions differ. Some argue that we will soon only prompt machines that will do the rest. Others argue that writing is the core of learning: Writing is thinking. The question is not whether students should write, but how. Future generations of students must be able to formulate their own thoughts and know how to make AI a partner in the process.

AI is here to stay. And we must decide how to use this new technology – and what we cannot allow ourselves to stop doing. Today, as the autumn leaves are changing color, I wonder whether we teachers are not ready to take the next step: to curiously begin exploring new ways of teaching to stimulate learning and critical thinking in this fast changing world.

Paradoxically, I believe that AI is making the physical meeting with students in the classroom more important than ever.

photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Illustration: Leonardo AI