MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As ChatGPT turns three, a West Virginia University professor says the artificial intelligence platform has evolved from a curiosity to a trusted coworker that’s reshaping how people work, learn, and communicate at a pace few anticipated.
Joshua Meadows, an assistant professor and director of "Data Driven WV" at the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics in Morgantown, said the technology’s role has matured dramatically since its 2022 debut, moving from a “neat demo” to an essential part of daily operations for businesses and public institutions alike.
“ChatGPT is now a household name and an essential business tool,” Meadows said. “But where it needs to shine is as a workflow assistant with accountability. To serve our needs, ChatGPT must treat its own outputs merely as drafts, keeping humans responsible for decisions. That’s how its early promise is going to translate into repeatable, trustworthy results.”
From novelty to necessity
Meadows said ChatGPT excels at transforming and reformatting information, such as drafting emails, summarizing reports, converting policies into checklists, and standardizing spreadsheets. Combined with other digital tools, it’s helping professionals manage workloads more efficiently than ever before.
“If we come up with a reliable prompt, put it to work and keep improving it, ChatGPT has reached the point where it can do a great job for us,” he said.
Still, Meadows cautioned that AI remains far from perfect.
“ChatGPT still hasn’t mastered reliability,” Meadows said. “Hallucinations and bias are better understood but not eliminated. Long, multistep reasoning can still drift. Integrating external data or tools can be a problem.
"Governance, including issues of privacy and attribution, is a work in progress. And costs are also variable — getting a return on investment still requires keeping a human in the loop.”
Preparing students for an AI-driven future
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence has also reshaped the classroom. Meadows said he now teaches an entire course at WVU focused on artificial intelligence consulting—a field that barely existed when ChatGPT launched.
“The pace of change has been so fast over the last three years that I now teach undergraduates in AI consulting, because that’s what the field is already demanding,” he said. “As we head into 2026, students are learning the winning pattern for ChatGPT is augmenting human labor, not replacing it.”
Organizations that build clear guardrails for artificial intelligence use, such as rules for data handling and metrics for measuring performance, are realizing the greatest long-term benefits, Meadows added.
“Organizations that formalize those basics are seeing durable value,” he said. “Those that skip them end up with one-off demos that don’t survive contact with real customers.”
Three years in, the message from WVU’s "Data Driven WV" program is clear. ChatGPT isn’t a boss. It’s a capable teammate, best used to enhance human effort rather than replace it.
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university founded in 1867 in Morgantown, West Virginia, serving as the state’s flagship institution of higher learning with satellite campuses statewide. It is recognized nationally for its programs in energy, health sciences, engineering, and public service.
WVU enrolls more than 25,000 students across undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs and is home to major research centers advancing innovation in fields such as neuroscience, forensic science, and environmental sustainability.
WVU’s Mountaineer athletic teams compete in the Big 12 Conference, and the university is widely regarded as a cultural and economic cornerstone of West Virginia, promoting education, research, and community development throughout the Appalachian region.
Micaela Morrissette, director of WVU Research Communications, contributed to this story.
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