University of Alabama at Birmingham
AL · AI Readiness #178 of 227
AIREDEX™ Score: 5.5 /10
Hands-on AI access starts on day one at UAB, through the Cheaha supercomputer and Microsoft Copilot, with pilots reaching non-technical classrooms in the Pre-Law Program and Collat School of Business, extending exposure well beyond engineering.
UAB undergrads also get free access to Adobe Firefly and Zoom AI Companion, two more university-wide AI tools beyond Copilot. The Center for Teaching and Learning has run its AI in the Classroom workshop series since 2023, joined in 2026 by the AI Literacy Taskforce and the AI Integration Hub, which coordinates campus-wide AI programming out of the Office of the President.
Pillar grades
- Commitment: B-
- Curriculum: C-
- Partnerships: C
- Research: B+
A(I)ttitude™: cautious
Selected Highlights
- Chandni Khadka holds the title Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Artificial Intelligence Integration in the Office of the President, a named senior administrative AI role; scored at Q2 level (3 pts) as title is not C-suite VP/Provost level.
- Two distinct governance bodies confirmed: AI Advisory Committee (est. July 2023, chaired by Katie Crenshaw, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer) and AI Leadership Team (est. May 2026, convened by Khadka); both cross-campus, both with public outputs.
- AI Strategic Initiative (AISI), Generative AI Principles (Aug 2023), Responsible AI Guiding Principles, and Generative AI and UAB Policy all confirmed as institutional-level documents with stated goals, governance commitments, ethical guidelines, and named programs.
- AIM+HI $5M (state AI health initiative), $2.5M research computing/AI state supplement, ~$10M from $44M DOC/EDA biotech grant for AI drug discovery platforms confirmed; $50M Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building partially supports AI research infrastructure.
- AI Integration Hub (enterprise, 2026), SPARC (director Jake Y. Chen, cross-departmental: Heersink/CCTS), ARCH (CS dept., cross-disciplinary), and Hugh Kaul PMI (director Matthew Might) all confirmed with active programming.