UNC Chapel Hill - Shuford School of Entrepreneurship

About the Shuford Program

The Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship at UNC-Chapel Hill is designed to equip students with entrepreneurial thinking and real-world experience. With 300+ students per semester, the program bridges the gap between academia and industry, preparing students to lead in innovation and emerging technologies.

The Challenge

Shuford wanted to position itself as a leader in AI entrepreneurship by giving students and faculty the tools to create and control their own AI agents. Their goals included:

• Enabling faculty to develop AI-powered assistants—such as a Business Model Canvas assistant branded by the Shuford School of Entrepreneurship

• Empowering students to create AI agents that enhance their coursework and can be shared with classmates

• Ensuring the platform was consumer-grade so that non-technical users could easily build and deploy AI assistants

• Scaling AI learning across entire classes of 300+ students each semester

Why Alysium?

The Shuford Program partnered with Alysium because they needed a platform that:✅ Allows the school to own and control its AI agents—ensuring they reflect Shuford’s brand and expertise✅ Is consumer-grade, making AI agent creation accessible to students and faculty with no technical background✅ Enables students to build AI assistants that support their coursework and can be shared with peers✅ Provides a scalable, self-service AI solution that can accommodate large student cohorts

The Solution

Alysium is working with the Shuford Program to develop a custom AI platform where:

• Professors and program leaders can create AI-powered assistants that serve as learning tools for students

• Students can design and share AI assistants to help with assignments, group projects, and coursework

• Shuford-branded AI agents can showcase the program’s leadership in AI-powered entrepreneurship

Several pilot tests have been conducted to refine the experience, ensuring the AI agents are useful, intuitive, and aligned with Shuford’s vision.

Current Status & Future Plans

As of early 2025, Alysium is continuing to improve the platform, with the goal of making it stable and scalable enough for full deployment across Shuford’s 300+ students per semester.

Once testing is complete and Alysium reaches the necessary level of scalability and ease of use, the platform will be launched to support AI-driven learning and entrepreneurship at scale.

Future updates and expansion plans will be shared as they develop.

To learn more about the Shuford Program, visit shuford.unc.edu.