Hire AI: Teaching College Students AI Literacy Through the Creation, “Hiring”, and Management of Personal AI Assistants

Hire AI is a flexible, semester-long instructional framework that cultivates Generative AI (GAI) literacy by positioning students as supervisors who hire, onboard, and coach personal GAI assistants. Designed as an add-on structure that integrates easily into existing curricula, Hire AI makes students active decision-makers responsible for ethically informed, context-sensitive collaboration with GAI on their assignments. This design case presents a single framework examined through two disciplinary implementations, describing how the assistant metaphor, scaffolded sequence, and structured reflection are intended to enable students to develop critical thinking and responsible habits related to their use of GAI. As an add-on design integrating seamlessly into existing curricula, Hire AI offers instructors a scalable scaffold for embedding GAI literacy while fostering transferable skills for academic and professional environments.