Leading business schools in the U.S. are adding artificial intelligence (AI) education to their Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. Since the advent of ChatGPT, the importance of generative AI skills across various industries has grown, prompting educational institutions to respond.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the private American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington, D.C., will launch or revise twenty AI-related courses starting next academic year. The new courses will focus on text mining, extracting information from large amounts of text data, predictive analytics using data, negotiation skills using ChatGPT, and more. New business models based on AI and courses in the entertainment industry are also expected to be added.
In response, professors are undergoing AI education training. David Marchick, the dean of Kogod, decided to change the curriculum after venture capitalist Brett Wilson visited the school last December and mentioned that jobs would be taken not by AI but by people who can use AI effectively. Marchick said, “No matter what job you have, you must know how to use AI.”
Graduate schools of high reputation, such as the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, focus on developing AI capabilities in their students. They are now introducing relevant assignments in some of their courses. Professor Ethan Mollick of Wharton recently assigned his students a task to automate their regular work using AI, believing that students need to experience the existential crisis caused by AI firsthand. Professor Sina Lyengar at Columbia Business School emphasizes that MBA students should use AI to generate new ideas quickly and comprehensively.
Demand is high among students as well. According to a Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) survey, 40% of MBA candidates believe that learning AI is essential for obtaining a business school degree. This figure has significantly increased from 29% in 2022. Professor Robert Bray of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business said that when he added coding education using large language models to his lecture last year, registrants increased from 21 to 55. Bill Boulding, Dean of Fuqua, said, “AI is eating our world, and there’s no way to stop it.”
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