This story originally appeared in the Summer 2026 issue of The University of Alabama Alumni Association magazine. Learn more about becoming a member to get stories like this delivered to your mailbox.
The biggest challenge facing today’s workforce isn’t learning how to use artificial intelligence. It’s keeping up with how fast it’s changing.
That’s an issue Culverhouse alum Josh Jones wants to fix. He’s CEO of QuantHub, a Birmingham-based company that teaches people how to understand and use data and AI. His mission is to help students, educators and professionals keep up with the fast and ever-changing business landscape influenced by AI.
Jones, a Tuscaloosa native, has spent more than 30 years working in the tech field. In that time, he has started and sold several companies. Along the way, he noticed technology wasn’t just changing certain jobs, it was changing all of them.
“The pace of change is speeding up,” Jones said. “And now, technology is even helping build new technology.”
That idea led to QuantHub. The company works with K-12 schools, colleges and businesses, offering lessons that connect AI skills to real jobs. Its AI curriculum is even used at The University of Alabama.
What makes QuantHub different is how quickly it can adapt. Colleges often take years to update courses and curriculum. The issue is AI tools and jobs that use them change in just months.
To keep up, QuantHub uses AI to help build its own lessons. Experts still review everything, but the process is much faster, which means students are learning skills that match what’s happening now, not what was relevant a few years ago.
“We can move at the speed of change,” Jones said.
Jones got a firsthand look at these skills in action years ago while consulting with companies that use data to make decisions. One of those companies was Chick-fil-A, which values enhancing the guest experience and making sure they feel cared for in a meaningful and personal way. The success of their systems depended on solid data. And good data depends on people.
“If you think about the ability to predict drive-thru peak times and identify when do you build an extra lane in a drive-thru or where you use digital tablets, there are ways that you can enhance the guest experience,” Jones said. “At the back end, we just see it as a great visit to a restaurant. But there’s a lot of data. There’s a lot of predictive modeling that goes into that process of delivering that elevated experience.”
Today, AI has made that even clearer. Jones says many people still misunderstand what working with AI really means. You don’t need to be engineer or a math whiz to understand or work with AI.
AI is already part of everyday life, from maps that predict traffic to apps that suggest movies. Learning to use it is less about coding and more about understanding how it works and how it can help.
That knowledge is becoming more important as AI spreads into new fields. Jones believes healthcare is one of the biggest areas for change. Through a partnership with Emory University, QuantHub is helping train healthcare leaders to use AI in their work.
“Healthcare is an incredibly complex subject,” Jones said. “The Wall Street Journal reported that Americans have the highest healthcare cost anywhere in the world. No surprise. But seeing how AI can change that from improving operations management to leveraging AI-powered therapies and tools, I would suggest as all this pace of change accelerates, we’re going to see tremendous impacts in healthcare.”
Jones has three daughters, one already at UA majoring in biology and the other coming to UA to study marketing in the fall. His advice to them is to focus on how AI is changing their specific fields.
“With my oldest being in biology, the question is, ‘How is AI changing biology?’” he said. In her first internship, she was able to use image recognition to do cell counting in a way that the lab had not been doing. She really inspired them to think about a new approach and ultimately got to present at a conference as a result of that.”