Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) has concluded the second batch of its Emerging AI Tools Training Programme for faculty, aimed at building AI literacy and promoting responsible integration of emerging technologies into medical education. The training was led by Dr Abid Ali, AI Trainer and Associate Professor of Biochemistry at BMSI, JPMC, Sindh Medical College (SMC), JSMU, and was conducted by the Department of Biochemistry under the supervision of Prof. Dr Saima Aqil, in collaboration with the Department of Physiology, led by Prof. Dr Asif Memon from SMC JSMU. The programme joins a wider wave of similar AI faculty training initiatives that have rolled out across Pakistani universities over the past year, including hands-on sessions at PMAS-AAUR, UMT, and Government College Women University Faisalabad.
Faculty members from the Departments of Anatomy, Forensic Medicine, Physiology, Biochemistry, and Community Medicine participated in hands-on training sessions covering effective prompting techniques, AI-assisted lecture preparation, presentation design and redesign, and AI-supported research and assessment. This curriculum spans both the practical, day-to-day uses of AI in classroom preparation and its application to more research-oriented academic work, giving medical faculty exposure across the range of tasks AI tools can realistically assist with in a clinical teaching environment. The cross-departmental participation, spanning five distinct medical specialties, reflects an institutional push to build AI familiarity broadly rather than confining the training to a single department.
Participants were introduced to and trained in the practical use of leading AI tools, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, NotebookLM, and Claude, with a focus on their effective and responsible application in academic and research activities. Naming specific tools rather than teaching generic AI concepts gives faculty members concrete, immediately applicable skills they can begin using in their own lecture preparation and research work right after completing the training, an approach similar programmes at other Pakistani institutions have also adopted when training faculty on generative AI adoption. To support continued learning and practical application beyond the sessions themselves, participants were also provided with e-books, prompt libraries, and AI toolkits, giving them reference material to consult as they apply what they learned to their ongoing teaching and research responsibilities.
The successful completion of the second batch reflects continued collaborative efforts between the Departments of Biochemistry and Physiology at SMC, JSMU, toward building AI literacy, faculty development, and the responsible adoption of emerging technologies in medical education specifically. As medical education in Pakistan increasingly grapples with how to integrate AI tools responsibly, given the high stakes nature of clinical training and assessment, JSMU’s structured, multi-batch approach to faculty training offers a model for other medical institutions weighing how to introduce similar programmes. Whether the skills covered in this second batch translate into measurable changes in how JSMU faculty design lectures, assessments, and research work will likely become clearer as the university continues its training programme into subsequent batches and faculty begin applying the tools covered in their regular teaching responsibilities.
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