Welcome to the world of AI and its impact on business schools

It is not uncommon to find disgruntled professors in business schools who complain about the lack of morale among students, especially when they find from the AI tool of plagiarism software like Turnitin that a significant part of assignments given by them have been presented by making reckless use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) or other tools of AI. Conversely, it is common to find students not getting stressed due to the plethora of assignments from professors as they know the power of AI and other artificial intelligence tools to offer solutions in no time. Welcome to the world of AI tools and their impact on business schools!

AI and its tools like Generative AI are now omnipresent, and corporate leaders are already harnessing their benefits to make decisions to manage risks, optimize profits, and enhance market share. It is quintessential for business schools to prepare students as future leaders armed with critical thinking skills to manage projects and make decisions based on AI. As the entire ecosystem of AI, especially for business schools, is new and will keep evolving, it remains a big challenge for them to adapt and integrate the AI-based culture into their curriculum. A massive pedagogical disruption in the teaching styles has already become a call for the day. This is where sincere collaborations with organizations and AI experts have become crucial for all management institutions.

Is AI affecting the onboarding plans for many corporations, and therefore, placements have become a big challenge for business schools? The answer is “Yes" since it will keep disrupting employment opportunities in the future. Conversely, it is also fair to imagine that enough opportunities remain available for students to explore if they are well-versed with AI tools and know how to use them. All Indian business schools enroll students in diverse academic disciplines like Commence, Arts, Architecture, Science, and others, and grooming each one with potential gains of AI tools remains a big opportunity. The fear of job losses experienced in 2024, perhaps due to AI, may shift to focusing on understanding and leveraging AI to stay competitive and grab employment opportunities.

What should business schools do? The first step in this direction should be an overhaul of the curriculum to integrate AI-linked data science and analytics in all subjects of function, including finance, marketing, HR, and other emerging areas like ESG, sustainability, public policy, etc. Students must be given inputs about the most recent AI tools, including comprehensive exposure to the applications of IoT, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, AR, VR, edge, predictive analysis, and cloud Computing. It would be an excellent idea if students were also provided hands-on experience in coding algorithms and processing data using the Kaggal and other databases like axXivNetBo for metadata. Exposure to models like Gemma, Llama 2, Llama 3, EfficiantNetBO and machine learning in all subjects would be the most effective mixture to help students appreciate the underlying artificial intelligence and its potential to do good.

It was a wonderful experience to try and work on the bond yield curve of one of the money market products for which I used ChatGPT, took clues for structuring the algorithm in Python, and obtained the solution. Innumerable possibilities exist even for those who are not experts in computer science, like me, who were never exposed to the world of AI or data science.

By taking a few steps now and remaining agile to embrace architectural alterations in the pedagogy and curriculum as and when necessary, business schools can groom students to stay employable and navigate this complex landscape of AI in their professional lives