AI in business education: Why’s and How’s

Abstract

Technology has a big role to play in business, hence a significant portion of should be part of business education. Emerging technologies are evolving quite rapidly and keeping up with business education with them is becoming a challenge. One such emerging technology is Artificial Intelligence (AI). The rapid advances esp. in deep learning and the hype created around this emerging technology must be realistically and critically incorporated into business literature. So, two big questions emerging from this debate is why an emerging technology like AI should be part of contemporary business curriculum/literature? and how we can do this where all the needs of the stakeholders are served properly and realistically.

To address the question of why we need to consider AI in business education from relevancy, employability and ethics point of view. There is growing frustration among business owners that business education is no longer relevant to the market needs. They claim business education is too focused on the knowledge domain and not enough emphasis on skills development. However, this criticism is partially justified as businesses have also developed unrealistic expectations from business graduates and job descriptions (Kietzmann and Pitt, 2020). AI as a skill is quite valuable for business graduates as it empowers them to get a first-hand feel of the impact a technology can have on business. But there is a dilemma here as most of the business graduates are developed in business schools to be managers and not technology experts. This distances them from reality and takes on a more implied role within the business (Sollosy and McInerney, 2022).

Employability is another key dimension of this debate. Business education is becoming expensive and potential graduate wants to see value in their education which is employable in the general market (Tominc and Rožman, 2023). This view may be misplaced as technology changes rapidly and with it requires a skillset. However, that does not mean that business education should lack a significant portion of technology skill development for potential business graduates.

Society and business at large have changed significantly post-pandemic, and automation has been the key driving force in this regard. AI and automation are going hand in hand esp. in manufacturing, finance and legal aspects of business (Tominc and Rožman, 2023). This requires a complete re-think of innovation in business education and how it is transferable in the real business world.

How can we aim to serve all the above purposes is strongly dependent on the fairness, accountability and auditability of the business scholars and leaders. They need to critically analyse the need and do a gap analysis. This requires asking the right questions about the real potential of AI and removing the hype from reality. This means finding the relevant applications of AI that can transform future businesses and create collaboration with experts in the AI system. This collaboration will require a re-set of skills and knowledge domains of the business curriculum/literature. Closer alignment of expectations and reality from business owners and graduates. The realisation of the true potential of AI in improving bottom line, sustainability and long-term focus in business.

To conclude why’s and how’s will be the critical questions that all the stakeholders in business and education must ask and address. If we critically realise the need for AI in our literature, we will be better able to adapt to the challenges this new and emerging technology is bringing. This criticality is beneficial as the earlier success of the technologies in bringing about promised change in doing business and generating substantial improvement has been quite Luke-warm.

References

Cottrill, K., 1998. Turning competitive intelligence into business knowledge. The Journal of Business Strategy, 19(4), p.27.

Kietzmann, J. and Pitt, L.F., 2020. Artificial intelligence and machine learning: What managers need to know. Business Horizons, 63(2), pp.131-133.

Sollosy, M. and McInerney, M., 2022. Artificial intelligence and business education: What should be taught. The International Journal of Management Education, 20(3), p.100720.

Tominc, P. and Rožman, M., 2023. Artificial intelligence and business studies: study cycle differences regarding the perceptions of the key future competencies. Education Sciences, 13(6), p.580.