Artificial Intelligence Major
Table of Contents
What is an Artificial Intelligence degree?
An artificial intelligence degree prepares you to design, build and evaluate systems that perceive, reason, learn and act. At Furman, the Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence pairs that technical depth with ethics and the liberal arts, so you understand both how intelligent systems work and how they affect the people who use them.
AI is being built fast, and sometimes without proper guardrails. The people racing to release it do not always ask who it helps, who it could harm or whether it should exist at all. The field needs people who ask these questions, and this major prepares them.
Here, the liberal arts power the entire program. They shape the rare builders who can design a powerful system and still see the human on the other side.
- Ethics at the core. Every major takes Digital Dilemmas, plus human-centered electives like Explainable AI and Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. You can go further by pairing the major with Furman’s Digital Ethics minor.
- You learn to build. You write code from your first semester and build working AI systems in every elective. Along the way, you learn to explain why a model behaves as it does, because a system you cannot explain is a system you cannot trust.
- A path you shape. The major is compact enough to pair with a second major, and you choose three AI electives. Pair AI with mathematics, physics, business or economics.
Take your first steps by contacting admissions or reading more about how to apply.
Why study AI at Furman
Build artificial intelligence the world can trust. You start building AI in your first programming courses, and the work grows from there.
- In the classroom. Every AI elective centers on projects, so you finish each course having built something that works.
- Career preparation. Through Purposeful Pathways, you complete six career activities, such as technical interview workshops, career fairs and employer events. An internship or research experience can count toward one.
- The capstone is yours to design. You finish with a culminating AI project in Seminar in Computer Science, or with faculty-mentored research.
- Research with faculty. Join a professor’s research group during the academic year, and apply for a funded summer of full-time research. Students regularly present their work at Furman Engaged and at regional and national conferences.
- Internships. Apply your skills in AI-focused internships.
- Study away. Spend a semester learning in another part of the world.
Plan a visit to Furman’s beautiful campus or start your application today.
What you'll study
The major has 12 courses. You begin with a seven-course core in programming, mathematics, artificial intelligence and ethics, with no prior programming experience required. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence surveys the field, from classic symbolic methods to modern machine learning, and every AI elective builds on it. You then choose a foundation elective and three AI electives, and you finish with a capstone: a seminar project or research with a faculty mentor.
The bridge course is Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. It spans classic symbolic methods to modern machine learning, and every AI elective builds on it.
The capstone is Seminar in Computer Science. You finish with a culminating AI project that’s yours to design.
Careers for AI majors
AI is one of the fastest-growing fields in the economy and it needs people who can build, evaluate and deploy intelligent systems responsibly.
Opportunity
Graduates pursue roles such as machine learning engineer, AI research scientist, natural language processing or computer vision engineer, and AI safety specialist. Others continue to graduate study or apply the degree in health care, law and policy, education, and scientific research.
Outlook
Employment of computer and information research scientists, the federal category that includes AI researchers, is projected to grow 22% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3% average for all occupations. The median annual wage for this occupation, which typically requires a master’s degree, was $140,300 in May 2025. For roles open to graduates with a bachelor’s degree, the May 2025 median wage was $134,040 for software developers and $120,230 for data scientists (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Where AI professionals work
AI is no longer confined to technology companies. Banks, hospitals, manufacturers and retailers now build their own intelligent systems, and they need people who can build them responsibly.
| Industry | Example employers |
| Technology | Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic |
| Finance | Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, Fidelity Investments |
| Health care and life sciences | Prisma Health, Epic Systems, Pfizer, UnitedHealth Group |
| Manufacturing and automotive | BMW Manufacturing (Spartanburg), Michelin North America (Greenville), GE Vernova |
| Retail and logistics | Walmart, Amazon, UPS |
| Government and research | Federal agencies and national laboratories such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
AI courses
Artificial Intelligence Major FAQ
A Bachelor of Science that teaches you to design, build, train and deploy intelligent systems, with ethics in the core. The major has 12 courses: a seven-course core, a foundation elective, three AI electives and a capstone.
The major prepares you for roles such as machine learning engineer, AI research scientist, natural language processing or computer vision engineer, and AI safety specialist. Many graduates also continue to graduate study, and others apply AI in health care, finance, manufacturing, law and policy, education and scientific research.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 22% growth from 2025 to 2035 for computer and information research scientists, the federal category that includes AI researchers. The median annual wage for that occupation was $140,300 in May 2025.
Computer science builds breadth across computing, from software engineering to systems. The Bachelor of Science in AI goes deep in one direction, with a dedicated AI bridge course, a foundation elective, three AI electives and a capstone focused on building intelligent systems.
The AI major is about building intelligent systems that can perceive, reason, learn and act. Information Technology, also in the Computer Science Department, is multidisciplinary: you pair computing and computational thinking with a concentration in another field, applying technology within a domain you choose. Data and Decision Analytics, housed in the Mathematics Department, uses statistics and operations research to turn data into business and organizational decisions. The Data Analytics minor adds foundational analytics skills that complement another major.
Yes. The 12-course major leaves room for a second major, and AI pairs well with mathematics, physics, business or economics. Students may complete only one major within the Computer Science Department, so AI cannot be combined with Computer Science, Data Science or Information Technology.
Email Dr. Nathan Cook, Interim Chair of Computer Science, to set up an appointment.
Your faculty and mentors
Your professors build and study AI systems, and you can join them in that work. Their research spans deep learning for drug and antibiotic discovery, intelligent tutoring systems, game-based AI, machine learning on large and networked data, data visualization, and human-centered computing.
Chris Alvin
Rebecca Drucker
Saugat Pandey
Syed Fahad Sultan
Haorui Sun
