How some MBA programs in the US are reorienting courses around AI by adding AI-related classwork, encouraging students to present on AI innovations, and more
American University, other top M.B.A. programs reorient courses around artificial intelligence; ‘It has eaten our world’ Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to . X: @grady_booch , @barbariancap , and @jmrivera02 LinkedIn: Lee Ann Sullivan Moore and David Marchick Forums: r/singularity and Slashdot Mastodon: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life@mas.to : MBA programs are encouraging students to learn how to automate their tasks using AI in top business schools across the US. — They're learning how to use ChatGPT to prepare for negotiations, navigate workplace conflict or advocate for promotion. — It's like going to school to learn how to outsource your job. … X: Grady Booch / @grady_booch : 'Bray, who teaches operations management at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management...encourages his students to offload as much work as possible to AI, treating it like “a really proficient intern."' Incompetent but proficient, that is. https://www.wsj.com/... @barbariancap : it's over Business Schools Are Going All In on AI https://www.wsj.com/... Joshua Rivera / @jmrivera02 : What are we going all in on, man. What has this stuff accomplished except a hard on for venture capitalists https://www.wsj.com/... LinkedIn: Lee Ann Sullivan Moore : I am looking for ideas...WSJ is beating the drum as loud as anyone on the use of AI, today being no different. … David Marchick : The Wall Street Journal said it best: We're going all in on AI. — From new course options to faculty upskilling, Kogod and other leading business schools … Forums: r/singularity : Business Schools Are Going All In on AI: American University, other top M.B.A. programs reorient courses around artificial intelligence; ‘It has eaten our world’ Msmash / Slashdot : Business Schools Are Going All In on AI
Context & Ripple Effects
Business-school experimentation followed earlier classroom tests: a Wharton professor found that students required to use ChatGPT also learned to fact-check its errors and biases in a ChatGPT-required course. Universities were also already weighing AI’s instructional promise and risks while outside groups offered curricula to help schools teach AI.
This matters because MBA programs are treating AI less as a specialist topic than as a practical management capability, extending its use into negotiation, workplace conflict, and career-advocacy exercises.
First-order effects
- MBA students at American University, Kellogg, and peer programs gain AI-focused assignments and course options aimed at automating and augmenting routine managerial work.
- Business-school faculty must build AI fluency into existing teaching and assessment, rather than leaving the subject to standalone technical courses.
Second-order effects
- MBA employers may encounter graduates with more experience using AI in everyday management workflows, raising the value of judgment, verification, and effective delegation alongside tool familiarity.
- Schools competing for professionally oriented students face pressure to demonstrate that their curricula reflect AI-enabled work, while vendors such as ChatGPT gain a foothold in classroom workflows.
Third-order effects
- If these changes persist, business education could normalize AI as a general-purpose workplace layer—similar to other core management tools—rather than a discrete technology elective.
- The lasting differentiator may shift from access to AI tools to institutional teaching of oversight and responsible use, especially as earlier classroom experience highlighted accuracy and bias limits.
The trend: Professional education is moving from debating whether to permit generative AI toward training workers to deploy and supervise it in routine knowledge-work decisions.