The moment to address these questions is now. Many programs have already confronted suspected AI use in submitted exams, forcing ad hoc responses without broader discussion of principles or precedents. Some have tightened surveillance and banned AI outright; others are reconsidering whether traditional exam formats remain viable assessment tools. Yet these decisions are often made in isolation, without systematic exchange about what's at stake pedagogically and intellectually, leaving both faculty and students navigating uncertain terrain.

This roundtable brings together faculty from programs with different comprehensive exam structures—written, oral, portfolio-based, and hybrid models—to examine how AI should reshape our approach to doctoral assessment. We'll discuss: What does AI expose about what comprehensive exams were designed to measure? How might we redesign exams to assess capacities AI cannot replicate—archival intuition, interpretive creativity, historiographical intervention? Should AI be incorporated into exam preparation, or does its use undermine the developmental purpose of comprehensive study? What do our answers reveal about what we value in historical training?