INSPIRE From the Classroom to the Workplace: Role Clarity and AI Efficacy in Marketing Education

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into marketing practice presents new challenges and opportunities for marketing education, yet little research examines how students, faculty, and industry professionals navigate divergent expectations for AI use across institutions. This study addresses that gap using Role Theory from the organizational behavior literature, drawing on three sources: industry data (N = 521), a faculty survey (N = 24), and student survey responses from three universities (N = 574). Industry data suggests AI use in the workplace is still taking shape rather than fully settled; against that backdrop, we hypothesize that AI Efficacy and Classroom AI Preparation both differ across university locations, consistent with self-efficacy theory and Role Theory’s expectation that unclear or inconsistent role expectations may be associated with lower confidence and preparation. A related research question asks whether differing Role Clarity across institutions may help interpret these differences. Among spontaneous open-ended comments about AI-use expectations, students more often described ambiguity than clear policy understanding. Synthesizing these insights, the paper introduces the INSPIRE Model, a framework for adaptive AI integration in marketing curricula, and calls for further research testing classroom interventions.