AI and Economics Education

T he launch of ChatGPT 3.0 on November 30th, 2022 fundamentally altered the landscape of higher education. For economics academics and students, this technological shock has created both unprecedented challenges and opportunities that demand urgent attention. The world has changed and continues to evolve, necessitating structured and targeted advice on how best to adapt what and how we teach and assess. This research project provides a snapshot of how those teaching on economics degrees in the UK have responded to this technological transformation in their assessment design and proposes next steps for such degrees. Our work addresses a critical need: ensuring that economics graduates remain attractive to employers and that our degrees retain their value in an GenAI-transformed world. This is not merely about adapting to new technology; it represents a fundamental rethinking of what an economics degree should be in preparing students for their future lives and careers. Using mixed methods to gather evidence—including surveys of professional economists and economics academics, an all-day workshop featuring panel and focus group discussions, and comprehensive desktop research including a grey literature review—we analyse the impact of GenAI on assessment in economics degrees in the UK through three critical lenses.