Do universities teach artificial intelligence? That’s the question more and more high school students type into Google — or ask an AI directly. And it makes total sense: artificial intelligence in higher education has stopped being an elective and become the axis around which learning, entrepreneurship, and work now revolve. The problem is that most degree programs still haven’t fully caught up. In LEINN, however, AI is part of the experience from year one — not as theory, but as a real tool in service of real projects.
If you’re figuring out what to study and want to understand how artificial intelligence is genuinely integrated into a university degree, this article is for you.
How is artificial intelligence changing universities?
The mass arrival of generative AI has exposed a massive gap between what universities teach and what the job market needs. While many degree programs are still debating whether to allow or ban ChatGPT in assignments, the people already leading AI-powered projects are months or years ahead.
According to the World Economic Forum, 65% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 don’t exist yet. And most of them will have artificial intelligence as a central tool. This doesn’t mean every student needs to become an AI engineer. It means they need to know how to use it strategically to create value.
The most common mistake: confusing “studying AI” with “using AI”
There’s a huge difference between studying the mathematical foundations of machine learning algorithms and knowing how to apply artificial intelligence to validate a business idea, automate processes, or analyze the market for a real project. The first option requires engineering. The second requires strategic judgment.
LEINN works on the second — which is precisely what’s most scarce in the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The myth worth dismantling: “To work with AI you need an engineering degree”
This is probably the most widespread misconception among students aged 16 to 18 who are choosing a degree. The reality is that most professionals working with artificial intelligence in companies today are not AI engineers. They’re people with business vision, analytical ability, and knowledge of tools who know how to integrate AI into their projects.
A LEINNer doesn’t learn to program language models. They learn to use those models to do concrete things: research a market in minutes, generate a landing page prototype, automate their company’s customer support, or analyze sales data to make better decisions. That combination of strategic vision and hands-on tool fluency is exactly what tech companies and the most innovative startups are looking for.
Some LEINNer graduates now work at companies like Google, Revolut, PwC, or BBVA, or have built their own technology-driven projects — including AI Mate (specializing in AI agents), Sapinn (an artificial intelligence training platform), Data Growth, and Softngeeks (no-code solutions). All of this without an engineering degree.
What do LEINNers do with artificial intelligence from year one?
Artificial intelligence in LEINN doesn’t show up in a third-year module or an elective course. It’s present from year one, embedded in the real work of team companies. Here’s how it works in practice:
Validating ideas and analyzing markets
When a team of leinners wants to launch a product or service, the first thing they do is validate whether a real market exists for that idea. Using tools like Google Trends, Similarweb, or advanced prompts in AI models, they can research competitors, identify emerging trends, and analyze the behavior of potential customers in a fraction of the time it would take manually.
This isn’t a simulation: it’s real market research applied to real companies that need to make data-informed decisions.
Automation and growth (AI-powered growth)
Through the TECH IN BIZZ program — which replaced the former Digital Bootcamp to go deeper and connect more directly with the reality of real projects — LEINNers spend five intensive weeks on no-code automations, digital business models, and technology integration. Tools like N8N, Airtable, Replit, and Lovable stop being unfamiliar names and become allies in growing their companies.
The name change was intentional: from “Digital Bootcamp” (which sounded like technical training) to “TECH IN BIZZ” (which puts technology in service of business). Because the goal isn’t to train technicians — it’s to develop leaders who understand technology as a competitive advantage.
Prototyping and product development
Does your team have an app or digital service idea? LEINNers learn to create prototypes in Figma, v0, or Miro and to build functional landing pages to validate that idea before investing time or money in development. Generative AI dramatically accelerates this process: it lets you create copy, images, product structures, and user analyses in a matter of minutes.
Project management and data analysis
Knowing how to measure what matters is a critical skill for any entrepreneur. In LEINN, students learn to select key business indicators, collect clean data, and create visualizations in tools like Google Sheets, Looker Studio, or Power BI to make evidence-based decisions. AI acts as an accelerator here: it helps interpret data, identify patterns, and formulate improvement hypotheses.
The structure of tech learning in LEINN: beyond a single course
What distinguishes LEINN from a traditional degree isn’t having “more AI courses.” It’s that tech learning is woven throughout the entire learning process in multiple complementary ways:
Tech Skills: the shared foundation
In years one and two of LEINN, there is a dedicated technology and digitalization subject that gives all leinners a common foundation. It’s not taught theoretically: it’s discovered through challenges that teams must apply directly to their projects. The difference from a traditional course is that there’s always a bridge between theory and real practice.
Learning Paths: learning in order to apply
Each LEINNer builds their own learning track. Learning Paths are applied assignments framed as practical questions: “How do I use Meta Ads to get my product out there?” or “How do I automate lead follow-up with N8N?” To complete a Learning Path, the LEINNer consumes resources (manuals, videos, articles), documents how they applied the learning in their real project, and shares it with their teammates. Peer-to-peer learning at its most effective.
Expert technology consultations
When a team faces a specific tech challenge, they can book a session with a specialist. They don’t wait for a scheduled class: they ask for help when they need it, with a pre-work brief that frames the challenge and ensures the session is genuinely useful.
The Future Game: innovation and emerging technology
This second-year LEINN subject introduces leinners to the foundations of Design Thinking and Human-Centered Innovation. Throughout the course, concrete examples are shown of how certain technologies — including artificial intelligence — are ideal tools for tackling projects with a high degree of innovation. It expands LEINNers’ horizons and makes them aware of the vast range of sectors and projects where technology creates value.
Digital Fabrication Workshop
The TeamLabs/ labs have a digital fabrication workshop with 3D printers, laser cutters, and other machines that allow students to make physical ideas tangible and prototype them. Learning to use these tools helps develop a maker mindset and demystifies the idea that technology is “an engineers-only thing.”
LEINN vs. a technical AI degree: an honest comparison
To make a good decision, it’s worth being clear about how these two paths differ:
| Aspect | Engineering / technical AI degree | LEINN (TeamLabs/) |
|---|---|---|
| AI focus | Building and training models | Using AI strategically in real projects |
| Graduate profile | AI engineer, data scientist | Entrepreneur, intrapreneur, innovation leader |
| Hands-on experience | Academic projects and internships at the end | Real company with invoicing from year one |
| Company experience | Company internship (typically in year four) | Client projects and corporate challenges throughout the entire degree |
| Math and programming | Core of the program | Not required; no-code tools and applied AI are the focus |
| Entrepreneurship | Marginal or nonexistent | Central axis of the program |
| International experience | Erasmus (optional) | Learning Journeys to Finland, Costa Rica, India, and South Korea (included) |
The key question isn’t “which is better?” but “which fits you?” If your dream is to build the next language model, a technical engineering degree makes more sense. If you want to use AI to create and grow your own projects, LEINN offers a more direct path.
What kinds of tech projects do LEINNers create?
To understand concretely how artificial intelligence is worked in LEINN, one example is worth more than a hundred explanations. These are real projects and trajectories from leinners with a strong technology component:
During the SUP (Startup Acceleration Program), year-four teams have developed projects like SAPINN (an artificial intelligence training platform), STRATTA (a digital positioning agency), FUNNEL FORCE (sales automation and online funnels), and ZAPSTUDIOS (digital audiovisual production). These aren’t ideas in a PowerPoint deck: they are companies operating with real clients.
In the COP (Corporate Intraincubation Program), LEINNers work on real technology challenges with top-tier companies. Cases like designing a WhatsApp-first company strategy for Verti, or creating a digital value proposition for ANAYA in the EduTech ecosystem, show that the combination of entrepreneurial vision and AI can generate real impact inside established companies.
A LEINN team company made up of 20 young people will have invoiced a minimum of €300,000 by the end of the four years and will have launched more than 30 to 40 projects to market — proof of learning, not a promise. Many of those projects now have a core digital or technology component.
LEINN and artificial intelligence: what makes the MTA model unique
The methodology underpinning LEINN is the Mondragon Team Academy Model (MTA Model), originally developed in Finland more than 30 years ago and now applied in labs around the world under Mondragon Unibertsitatea. This model has one characteristic that makes it especially well-suited to the AI era: it’s based on applied learning, not memorization.
In a context where AI can answer any theoretical question in seconds, the competitive advantage is no longer in knowing many things — it’s in knowing how to do things. The MTA Model builds exactly that capacity: converting knowledge into action, and action into measurable results.
LEINNers learn technology because they need it for their projects. That real need is the best learning engine there is.
TeamLabs/ applies the MTA Model across its three labs in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, and Málaga.
Frequently asked questions about artificial intelligence at university
Do universities in Spain teach artificial intelligence?
Yes, though in very different ways depending on the degree. Computer science and data engineering programs study it from a technical perspective (programming models, mathematics, algorithms). In LEINN, artificial intelligence is worked from a strategic perspective: how to apply it to validate ideas, automate processes, and grow a real business. Both approaches are valid — it depends on what you want to do with AI.
What degrees work with artificial intelligence without being engineering?
Entrepreneurship and innovation degrees like LEINN integrate AI as a business tool from year one. LEINNers learn to use AI tools to research markets, prototype ideas, automate processes, and analyze data — all without needing to program models from scratch. There are also Digital Marketing, Product Design, and Communications degrees that are increasingly integrating more AI into their curricula.
How do you learn artificial intelligence without studying engineering?
The most effective way is to learn by applying: working on real projects where AI is a necessary tool, not theoretical content. In LEINN this happens naturally: LEINNers use AI to solve real problems in their team companies. Additionally, Learning Paths, expert consultations, and the TECH IN BIZZ program offer structured, applied learning in concrete tools.
Do I need to know how to code to work with artificial intelligence in LEINN?
No. In LEINN the focus is on strategic use of AI and on no-code and low-code tools that allow you to automate and build without needing advanced programming knowledge. Tools like N8N, Airtable, Lovable, and Replit are accessible to anyone with curiosity and a drive to learn.
What career paths are available to someone who studies LEINN and works with AI?
The possibilities are wide. Some LEINNers build their own technology-based companies (like AI Mate, Sapinn, or Data Growth). Others work at companies like Google, PwC, BBVA, or Revolut in roles focused on innovation, digital transformation, growth strategy, or AI consulting. LEINN has a 97% employment rate, and more and more of those profiles work in contexts with a strong technology component.
Conclusion: AI is already changing universities, and LEINN has a head start
The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence is going to transform higher education. It already is. The question is what kind of professional you want to be when that happens: someone who sees AI as a threat, someone who uses it as just another tool, or someone who turns it into a real competitive advantage to create projects, companies, and impact.
In LEINN, you don’t wait until year four to “get real-world experience.” From year one, artificial intelligence is part of your daily life as an entrepreneur — not as theory, but as a tool in service of something concrete: your project, your team, your clients.
If this way of learning appeals to you and you want to see how it works from the inside, the best step is to experience it firsthand. TeamLabs/ holds open house events (Puertas Abiertas) in Madrid, Barcelona, and Málaga. It’s the chance to talk with current LEINNers, see the labs, and find out whether this way of learning fits you.
Discover the upcoming LEINN open house events →
Keep reading
If this article was useful, you might want to learn more about what day-to-day life in LEINN looks like and what career paths this degree opens up. We recommend reading about how TECH IN BIZZ came to be, LEINN’s technology and innovation program, and also the real projects LEINNers create during the degree.
