Northern Arizona University
AZ · AI Readiness #200 of 227
AIREDEX™ Score: 5.1 /10
A standalone Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence launched at NAU in 2026, and an undergraduate AI certificate open to all majors gives students two distinct credential paths into AI study across the university.
NAU's TRAIL faculty grant program and annual AI Week showcase bring AI into English, Art, Communication, and Psychology courses across campus. The Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence coordinates curriculum and research activity university-wide, and the Monsoon HPC cluster, which includes NVIDIA H200 and A100 GPUs, is available to student researchers with faculty sponsorship. Every Lumberjack also has enterprise Microsoft Copilot access.
Pillar grades
- Commitment: C-
- Curriculum: C+
- Partnerships: D
- Research: C
A(I)ttitude™: cautious
Selected Highlights
- NAU declared AY 2025-26 the 'Year of AI Empowerment' and published multi-layered AI principles and faculty guidance through the Provost's Office, meeting the 2-of-4 criteria threshold.
- IAAAI launched AY 2025-26 as a cross-disciplinary hub drawing faculty from across the institution; active programming confirmed via IAAAI Fellows program (12 fellows/year, $1,000 stipend) and AI Week 2026.
- Full standalone BS in Artificial Intelligence (AIBS) confirmed in current NAU Academic Catalog -- not a concentration within another major.
- TRAIL Blazer Showcase 2026 documents AI integration in English (Arts and Letters), Art (Arts and Letters), Communication (Social and Behavioral Sciences), and Psychology (Social and Behavioral Sciences) -- four distinct non-STEM departments with undergraduate-accessible AI projects.
- 'Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Applications' undergraduate certificate confirmed in NAU catalog; open to students outside CS/engineering, scoring full credit.