Integrating AI and Entrepreneurship: Preparing CS Undergraduates for Startups and Innovation

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has become a defining force in the technology sector, with startups and unicorns largely fueled by computer science skills. However, most undergraduate computer science programs focus on technical competencies while outsourcing entrepreneurial education to business schools, where curricula are often generic and disconnected from the realities of CS-driven ventures. In addition, existing capstone and software engineering courses emphasize the technical details of development rather than entrepreneurial processes. This paper presents a curriculum that explicitly integrates artificial intelligence (AI) tools into entrepreneurship learning for computer science students. The program is designed to help students move beyond the notion that entrepreneurship is accidental or sudden and instead develop sustained exposure to ideation, customer discovery, prototyping, and pitching. Our project-based, one-year program equips students with entrepreneurial skills while leveraging AI for brainstorming, market validation, prototyping, and storytelling. We argue that, particularly in tight labor markets where evidence suggests graduates increasingly turn to entrepreneurship, there is an urgent need to embed CS-centered entrepreneurial education into undergraduate programs.