The NileView

Does Generative AI represent an inflection point for business schools?

This is the second in a series of articles that focus on artificial intelligence as societies around the world dig deep to understand better the prospects, challenges, and consequences of artificial intelligence (AI) in general and generative AI in specific. As of today, we know that it is an innovative and fast-emerging technology platform that promises to match, if not surpass, the implications of the introduction and diffusion of the use of the Internet.

For starters, generative AI will change jobs, businesses, and markets, and it is difficult to predict the magnitude of such change and its implications on efficiency and productivity, given that most of its potential is still unfolding. There is no doubt that the world is witnessing a paradigm shift that will lead to reconfiguring existing organizational models, retiring basic jobs while developing more advanced tasks, and changing market dynamics and what it means to conduct and grow business in an AI-driven ecosystem. The question is, are we ready for that? Do we have the know-how? Do we even know what kind of knowledge and expertise is needed? The short answer is no. The magnitude of the implications of integrating generative AI in different aspects of our lives and livelihoods is still unclear. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that AI, in its different forms, can and will impact various aspects of society.

With the considerable magnitude of such transformational change coming our way, I am reminded of Alvin Toffler’s famous quote from his book Future Shock, published in 1970––“The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” The difference this time is the magnitude of unlearning and relearning and the associated knowledge acquisition and capacity building needed. Accordingly, we––as a society––need to be ready to change a lot of what we do and reimagine how the organization of the future will look and operate while rethinking what that means for business and management education to be able to prepare the next generation of movers and shakers in society including business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and others.

In this NileView edition, the focus is more on higher education institutions––especially business schools––and what could be done as they revisit their portfolio of academic offerings and operational models to adapt to the changes induced by generative AI and its implications on the future of learning but also draw parallels and reimagine business and management education to prepare future generations to what is today dubbed as the future of work in terms of creativity, competition, mobility, agility, resilience, and collaboration.

As we are about to start a new academic year, it is not a secret that business schools continue to brainstorm and deliberate on how to address the evolving space of generative AI. The future prospects have surely caught the attention of everyone involved, and the subject has become a constant agenda item in different departments and, schools’ councils, and advisory board meetings. It represents a vast window of opportunities for all the business schools’ constituents’ including faculty, staff, and students, bringing with it a lot of excitement, discovery, innovation, and ambition yet blended with a lot of uncertainty and unknowns. It is important to note that the overall strategic question that keeps popping up for business schools’ various constituents, starting with its leadership––as they focus on shaping the next generation of leaders––is how generative AI will change how businesses and markets operate, what that means for the future of business and management education including corporate and lifelong learning and what needs to be done to prepare for it.

Since November 2022, the reactions of business schools around the world have been mainly ad-hoc. Such an approach reflected extreme reactions ranging from banning the use of generative AI until a reasonable level of understanding of its parameters is reached, all the way to exploring the portfolio of possibilities and consequences of using generative AI in student admission, pedagogical approaches to learning outcomes, improving curricula creation methodologies, advancing interdisciplinary scholarly research, revisiting traditional assessment and evaluation techniques while protecting human decision-making, transforming executive education and rethinking organizational dynamics including logistics, communication, and engagement.

All these developments happened––in many ways––with no clear general guidelines, policies, or directions to follow. Some of the business schools around the world––whether they are stand-alone schools or through their parent university––took the initiative to develop their guidelines, policies, or codes of conduct that address issues related to the use of various AI tools and applications such as ethics, transparency, bias, privacy, and security to mention a few. Many of these guidelines and policies are work-in-progress, and regular iterations are taking place as business school constituents are learning on the go.

It is still early days to think and strategize long-term for the business schools-wide adoption of generative AI since further developments and improvements in these innovative technologies are expected in the months and probably years to come, especially since, by design, generative AI is built in a way to learn and get better. Today, we are seeing early drafts and versions of what will become the engine behind several tech-enabled and interactive data-driven learning platforms, tools, and applications that will compete to offer innovative AI-powered solutions and alternative operations models for different businesses and industries. On this note, it is essential to mention that the efficacy of generative AI will always rely on and be deeply rooted in the accuracy, quality, integrity, relevance, and timeliness of the different shapes and forms of the data repository used.

Meanwhile, enterprises and organizations across different sectors will keep watching and constantly react to these developments by revamping their business and operational models to adapt to these technologies and integrate them into their various tasks and activities. As for business schools, they will continue to navigate through the complexities, opportunities, and risks posed by these technology platforms to offer the most advanced and value-driven learning experience for their students and learners. It is imperative to understand and acknowledge that business schools do not have any other option but to harness and embrace what generative AI can offer, be bold in their thought process, and be creative in rethinking how and what needs to be done to prepare their students and learners for the future in the best way possible.

Today, over ten months after the introduction of Chat-GPT—which I think is just the beginning, there are more questions than answers on what to expect and how to benefit from such a powerful platform that has the potential to change how we do many things. The overarching thought process today is—not just how to co-exist with generative AI but, more importantly–– how to benefit from it and capitalize on the prospects it offers, as it is becoming clear to everyone that in the next few years, it will reshape business schools, the discipline of business and management education and, consequently, how business is conducted within and between different markets as such promising innovative technology is expected to turbocharge productivity right, left and center. The question is how to embrace and adapt to using a fast-emerging innovative technology accelerating at such high speed.

Just to make it clear, the stakes are high with the prospects of generative AI. However, whether in its early edition today or in the advanced editions of the coming years, where it is expected to develop and accelerate significantly, it will not completely change how we do things because technology is what we make out of it. I firmly believe there will be a balanced role between humans and computing devices where, on the one hand, humans will continue to lead the way by being creative, ethical, diligent, passionate, and empathetic, and on the other hand, AI will excel in what it does best, and that is handling large data sets, conducting advanced analyses, and accelerating in addressing and solving complex issues.

In general, academics and scholars constantly amend their teaching style, update their curriculum, and explore different innovative techniques to remain relevant and maximize their students’ and learners’ experience. Ironically, since the spring semester of 2020, faculty around the world have been adjusting their teaching approach to adapt to a pandemic that gradually took different global markets by storm starting in November 2019. This included exercising remote instruction almost overnight, accelerating digital transformation, engaging in training and development programs to understand the dynamics, prospects, and limitations of remote teaching, and managing diverse faculty, staff, students, and learners’ populations whose expectations of the online environment changed categorically and whose actions varied from one to the other irrespective of their background, knowledge, age, gender, etc.

Exactly three years later, in November 2022, business schools’ constituents had to deal with another disruptive challenge of a different shape and form that is quite innovative, and that promises to be a game changer that goes way beyond the domain of education and lifelong learning and could––through various educational technology (EdTech)––help narrow the divides, improve equity and create opportunities for the underprivileged segments in society around the world. Generative AI could enhance the pedagogy and offer tailored and personalized support in the teaching and learning experience of millions of students and learners worldwide, especially in emerging economies, by providing universal, equitable, and affordable access and the ways and means for proper and effective adoption.

With all the possible disruptions to the world of business schools caused by the introduction of generative AI, many questions come to mind, including: how will generative AI affect and change business schools? How can AI align with the business schools’ strategic objectives? How can business schools mitigate the risks associated with generative AI? How can faculty help students and learners harness generative AI to augment the learning outcomes?

What are the implications of generative AI for faculty, staff, and student recruitment and retention? Will academic offerings be sufficient, or should lifelong learning be integral to the educational journey focusing on specific skills and capacities? How much will academic degrees change to accommodate the next generation of AI-driven jobs, or should new degrees be created? What are the implications for the student’s learning experience? What needs to change? Will generative AI affect the way faculty teach and conduct research as we know it? How can business schools redefine academic integrity? How can business schools streamline operations to improve efficiencies and rationalize expenses? What functions will be automated or canceled? How can business schools transform their offerings and deliver more informed and industry-ready graduates? How can AI technologies help advance and improve equity and inclusion among students and learners?

Like other higher education institutions, universities, businesses, and organizations across different fields, business schools will have to figure out how to adapt and capitalize on the opportunities presented to create a better future. This is the beginning of a new, exciting journey that will undoubtedly involve learning by doing, risk-taking, and experimentation in unchartered territories, eventually leading to some failures. However, that is an integral part of the learning process. In that sense, business schools should practice what they preach. They should engage and empower their stakeholders to participate in the AI learning journey. They need to effectively foster a culture of innovation and proactively seek to shape and embrace the prospects of AI. They can only do that if faculty, staff, policymakers, researchers, technology professionals, and experts collaborate on various policy issues that can help integrate and adopt generative AI––and AI in general––in business and management education.

This is a unique moment for business schools to lead the way in rethinking business and management education and explore what is needed to succeed in a fast, changing, innovative, constantly disruptive, and interconnected global environment.

As generative AI has the look and feel of an inflection point for business schools, the next years will witness unprecedented human-AI collaboration. Therefore, there is a need among business schools’ constituents to be ambitious, bold, entrepreneurial, responsible, creative, and driven by forward-thinking approaches that are both objective(s)-led and technology(ies)-based in how to optimize the use of artificial intelligence (AI) while capitalizing on its most important asset—human ingenuity (HI).

About the author: Sherif Kamel is a Professor of Management and Dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo.

31 August 2023
Issue #33