BITSoM dean: Post-NEP, AI is driving the biggest transformation in MBA curriculum

MUMBAI: BITS Pilani, one of the premier private universities in the country, began its school of management (BITSoM) in January 2021 in Mumbai. It has recently moved to the institute’s new campus in Kalyan on the outskirts of the city. During an interaction, BITSoM dean Saravanan Kesavan talks about integrating MBA curriculum with AI, diversity on campus and his outlook on placements. Edited excerpts:

Are there any changes being made to the MBA curriculum post-National Education Policy (NEP)?

We’re making huge changes, Artificial Intelligence (AI) being the biggest driver of this transformation. I have been part of business education for the last 22-23 years and I haven’t seen a time like this when so many businesses are at the cusp of change. They need expertise from MBA students. There's a massive opportunity.

There’s not a single company that actually understands the impact of AI. To give an example, an executive from JP Morgan, who had visited our campus, said they’re trying out 600 AI use cases to see what works for them and they think 100 might. So, if the leading banking firm hasn’t figured it out, the rest must be way behind.

It is absolutely clear in my mind that companies that don't adopt AI will be left behind. This transformation will require a unique set of skills – some of it is taught in a typical MBA programme, like change management. But since it’s a transformational change driven by technology, one needs people who understand AI really well.

We, at BITSoM, want to make sure that our students are the frontrunners of these changes. Last September, it became obvious to me that our students need to be trained in AI. So in March, which is the last month of classes for the second year, we scrapped all the courses we had originally planned and made it an AI intervention month. We flew in the best faculty from international universities to teach AI courses focused on finance, marketing, operations and data science.

We had week-long intensive hands-on classes for our second-year MBA students. To cap it off, we have a hackathon in collaboration with a company, where students will be given real data and asked to solve problems using AI.

In terms of proportion, what part of the curriculum is undergoing this transformational change due to AI?

It’s hard to pinpoint a percentage, but we are doing more than any other school. Next year, we will have AI as a core class in addition to a bunch of electives on the subject. We are going to have an AI experiential week where every student graduating from BITSoM next year will build a minimum viable AI product. We will have companies, both for profit and NGOs, come over and have students work with them for hands-on training.

Wouldn’t this also entail some teaching of technology itself? This would be a new territory for you, right?

It is new for everybody, but AI has reduced the entry barrier considerably. We are living in a ‘no-code low-code’ world. Earlier, you had to be an engineer or a tech person to build a product. Now anybody can build an AI product. One could go to some of the available tools and build an app without even understanding the basics of coding. And that’s what we are planning too.

And this does not mean that we are leaning more towards engineering students. We still want our students, including non-engineers, to be well-rounded.

While no university has figured out how to use AI, we being a small and nimble school, are able to experiment. So far, the feedback has been terrific.

I understand that you are experimenting with the curriculum. But will you also synthesise and formalise any of it so that it could be replicated by other B-schools?

Experimentation is the right word. Also, it's not just about teaching. We are planning to use AI in other aspects of the organisation, including the admission department and placements. We are going to identify use cases within the organisation and deploy AI. We need to walk the talk.

Can you give an example of AI’s use in admissions?

It's too premature at this point. A lot of it is just going to be for analysis for now. We get many great candidates and the goal is to use AI to help us look for holistic candidates. AI will help us sift through thousands of applications.

But isn't AI a bit biased towards numbers and tangibles? And when you look for holistic candidates, how would it serve your purpose?

As I said, it’s an experiment. We are definitely not going to take humans out of the picture. AI will be used under the guidance of humans. At no point are we going to automate it.

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What other changes are you noticing at businesses and workplaces? And how are you molding your curriculum?

The other big change is I'm trying to bring more experiential hands. Apart from practical AI training, we are going to introduce a class on experiential leadership. Leadership is not something that starts only when you have people reporting to you. It’s about the way you conduct yourself. Some of this can actually be spoken in the classroom, but it is better to reinforce these ideas with more experiential learning.

MBA students tend to have fewer years of experience in India compared to, for example, the United States. Over there, students usually start working from high school years. Through our MBA programme, we want to bridge some of the gap.

Would it be something more than they do through summer internships?

Yes. The summer internship stays but, even during the coursework, they will go out to learn how to work in different situations.

This goes back to my fundamental belief – and research backs it – that people tend to make big habit changes when there is a change in life scenarios. MBA is actually one of those time points. Right from orientation, it will be emphasised that MBA is not just about understanding your business, but a way to have overall improvement in your life, including mental and physical health.

Are there any new courses in the pipeline? Any update on the five-year integrated BE-MBA programme?

It will start from the upcoming year. There will be two entry points – one is direct admission to the integrated programme, while another set of students will join MBA after completing three years of engineering at BITS Pilani. They'll get the experiential learning component in the MBA programme because we have internships, which is what they would do [in the final year] of engineering course.

Are there any efforts to make the student community more diverse in terms of educational and regional backgrounds, class, caste and gender?

We already have an incredibly diverse class. We have a 50:50 male to female ratio. Ditto for engineering and non-engineering students. We have a small percentage of freshers, a healthy distribution of people with one-two years, three and more than three-year experience.

What about class and caste diversity, considering that the fees at private institutes can often be prohibitive to students from marginalised sections?

We have a need-based scholarship for students. And our vice chancellor [V Ramgopal Rao] is committed to having more need-based scholarships. I truly believe that no one should be deprived of education because of lack of financial resources.

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How diverse is your faculty?

It’s super diverse, in terms of gender ratio. We have a small group of resident faculty – two of them are women, four are men. The new candidates we recently interviewed had both males and females.

And what about caste diversity?

Faculty will be chosen based on merit.

How are placements this year?

Placements are looking good. We are in the home stretch and are hoping to place 100% students before graduation. One good trend is that there are more companies compared to last year. Some companies have increased their intake. More companies are looking for data-oriented positions.

What about IT and IT services? Are the layoffs still having an impact?

In technology jobs, we were not impacted as we didn't have too many tech companies recruiting. A lot of our students were going to consulting and that continues. Last year, there was little bit of a dip in consulting as they had over-hired in 2021. But things are coming back to normal now.

There appears to be a feeling among certain B-schools that they shouldn’t make placements the centre-piece of their offerings anymore. Has your outlook changed in recent years?

The Indian MBA market is highly sensitive to placements and starting salaries. Do I feel that this emphasis is a bit overweighted? Yes, I do think so because students should view the quality of education as a long-term investment. Viewing the value of a long-term investment using short term metrics is just fundamentally wrong. Having said that, this is the market that we choose to be in. So, we will continue to focus on getting the best companies for our students.

Any efforts to steer students towards entrepreneurship as opposed to high-paying jobs?

I don't believe in diverting students. We want to be a diverse place where students with different broad interest groups are accommodated. So, for those whose entrepreneurship interests are tickled, we want to be that school that enables it. But I don't want to push them either towards entrepreneurship or any other field. One should be allowed to freely choose what they like to do.

Do you see any of your students charting a different path from the usual?

There are always students who have great ideas and want to pursue them. Even the ones who want to be entrepreneurs might want to work for a few years. Some of them might have taken a loan. I don't think I have the right to dictate the timing of when they should take the entrepreneurship journey.