Will.i.am Bets Agentic AI Can Future-Proof Students

Will.i.am wants to do more than predict the future — he wants to train students to meet it head-on.

The Black Eyed Peas co-founder, long active in business and technology, has taken that effort into higher education with a class on “agentic AI” at Arizona State, according to NPR. The move extends a public career that has stretched well beyond music and into entrepreneurship, and it lands at a moment when schools, employers, and policymakers all scramble to understand what AI will change first.

“Agentic AI” has become the latest frontier in a wider debate over who gets prepared for the next economy — and who gets left behind.

Reports indicate the course aims to give students a practical feel for a fast-rising corner of artificial intelligence, one centered on systems that can carry out tasks with greater autonomy. That focus matters. Colleges across the country now face mounting pressure to teach not just coding or theory, but the habits and tools students may need in workplaces reshaped by automation and software-driven decision-making.

The bigger story reaches past one celebrity-led class. Universities increasingly court industry figures to make emerging technology feel immediate and usable, while public interest in AI keeps accelerating. Sources suggest that mix of star power, business credibility, and academic access can draw in students who might otherwise see advanced technology as distant, abstract, or reserved for specialists.

What happens next will test whether efforts like this can move from headline-grabbing experiment to durable model. If programs around agentic AI give students concrete skills and clearer access to a changing job market, more schools will likely follow. If not, the gap between AI’s rapid development and society’s readiness to handle it may only widen.