Expanding AI in Business Analytics Education: What’s New in Chapter 11
Curious how GenAI fits into business analytics? The 2026 Evergreen release expands AI coverage with fresh tools, trends, and ethical insights.
If you are looking for ways to add AI into your business analytics course, the 2026 Evergreen release of Introduction to Business Analytics by Professors Vernon J. Richardson and Marcia Weidenmier Watson can help you get started.
Chapter 11 has been renamed “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) to reflect its significantly revised content. A lot has changed during the two years since the release of the first edition of the textbook.
The first edition explained AI, machine learning, artificial neural networks, and deep learning. The 2026 edition expands the content to include natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLMs), and GenAI, as well as ethical considerations for AI. It attempts to provide a roadmap on how all of these different technologies are related.
Section 11.4, Trending Technologies, digs deeper into augmented/virtual reality, voice analytics/biometrics, and image analytics (a.k.a., computer vision). The section also explores how AI may enhance the functionality of blockchain and quantum computers.
Instructors can augment these materials by adding videos on different AI technologies. Even showing a picture of a quantum computer is a great hit with students.
Learn more about how the 2026 Evergreen release can further support your classroom below:
Marcia Weidenmier Watson is the Jesse H. Jones Professor Accounting in the Michael Neidorff School of Business at Trinity University. She received her BBA in accounting from the College of William and Mary, and both an MBA in information systems management and accounting and a PhD in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, TCU, Mississippi State University, UNC Charlotte, and Trinity University. Prior to receiving her PhD, Dr. Watson was a financial systems consultant for Price Waterhouse, now PricewaterhouseCoopers.
A member of the American Accounting Association, she served as newsletter editor for the American Accounting Association Information Systems section for 16 years. She serves on the editorial boards of Issues in Accounting Education and the Journal of Accounting Education. She has published articles in Accounting Horizons, Advances in Management Accounting, Issues in Accounting Education, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Accountancy, Journal of Accounting Education, Journal of Information Systems, and Strategic Finance. She also has had several cases published in Case Studies in Forensic Accounting and Fraud Auditing.
