Artificial intelligence tools are changing what MBA colleges teach and how

NEW DELHI: The Masters in Business Administration (MBA) courses are changing. Prominent business schools are increasingly introducing courses with a focus on advanced data analytics and digital tools for decision making. A majority of the focus is being directed at artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

This is not without cause. Experts have predicted a huge talent gap in the field of AI and ML and the business schools are working towards filling this.

A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad titled ‘AI in India — A Strategic Necessity’, estimates that the top 500 corporations in the world will need at least 25,000 to 30,000 skilled employees in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning by 2028. Currently, India has only 4.5 percent of the world’s AI professionals, the report noted.

Teachers, however, believe the landscape is already changing. Whether it is human resources (HR), or marketing, or financial analysis, digital tools such as AI or ML are already becoming important. They believe that apart from specialised courses, even the traditional MBA degree will also have to accommodate these tools.

Specialised MBA courses

The last few years have seen the launch of several specialised MBA programmes that focus on AI, ML, neural networks, and other data mining software. Delhi University’s newly-launched MBA in Business Analytics teaches Big Data, cloud computing, programmes like R and Python for analytics, data mining, and tools for HR analytics, financial analytics and marketing analytics. In IIM Kashipur’s MBA Analytics programme, students learn about decision modelling using data science and machine learning, social media and web analytics, natural language processing and deep learning.

Private universities such as Amity University, Chandigarh University and Graphic Era University have joined in. Amity University’s MBA Artificial Intelligence and Consulting teaches deep learning and predictive analytics, and ML applications paired with statistical decision making. Chandigarh University’s MBA Data Science and Artificial Intelligence teaches Big Data visualisation, analytical modelling using machine learning, neural networks and deep learning. Graphic Era’s MBA in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science deals with machine learning, text analytics and statistical decision-making for businesses.

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In these courses, students are taught how to use advanced digital tools for analytics. While the first year of these courses still teach traditional management concepts, the second year is dedicated to teaching tools such as Microsoft Power BI, R, Python and others. Teachers said that there is an increased focus on data analysis in MBA and that focus is reflected in their courses. DU’s MBA in Business Analytics for instance has papers dedicated to using Python for analytics, HR analytics, financial analytics, marketing analytics, AI and ML – all in the second year.

“In the traditional MBA, the focus is on students learning the management concepts and applying them in real-life scenarios. The focus has been on soft skill and hard skill. Hard skill is essentially a knowledge of statistics, mathematics, accounting, and data analysis. Earlier in MBA, we did not talk much about data crunching. Now we have started talking about big data and how to make use of the tools which are available,” said Hamendra Dangi, professor and coordinator of the MBA in Business Analytics programme launched by the Department of Commerce, Delhi University.

Evolving MBA syllabus

Not just specialised MBAs, teachers feel that even the regular MBA courses will have to keep up with these changes by including more AI and ML in their curriculum if they want to stay relevant.

“In MBA also, earlier there were only one or two subjects that had digital technology. But nowadays, if you see the curriculum of MBA, you can see a number of courses on digital technology, machine learning, AI, etc. There is change in MBA because technology is an integral part of our lives and professions and without it we cannot sustain. AI and machine learning are some of the most important technologies. We have to change accordingly and if we don’t, then one day we will become obsolete,” said Rajiv Kumar, head of MBA Analytics at IIM Kashipur.

Teachers said that this change has even affected subjects that were traditionally considered as highly theoretical or conceptual.

“Even papers which are very conceptual — for instance, marketing — can be taught in the form of marketing analytics, HR in the form of HR analytics, or financial analytics. Curricula which are traditionally considered to be conceptual are being reimagined through the lens of analytics,” said Dangi.

While the case-study remains at the core of MBA pedagogy, the way the case-study happens has also changed.

“I would, for example, ask students to download some sort of reviews or text data from any website. Then I would ask them to web scrape the data. Then I would ask them to do some sort of X mining, identify the sentiment of the text, identify the themes of the text, and create a word cloud. Or, I give them hypothetical data and ask them to identify the strategy to use,” said Dangi.

Students are taught to use Python or R or similar programmes to analyse a large subset of data to predict a future pattern based on it.

“Let us say students want to select a particular channel to effectively advertise through. Each television channel has different slots and timings. Some are prime time slots, some are not. Now the question is, if you want to put out an advertisement, which slot do you select? If we have some historical data from the last five years, that data will be used to analyse which slot will be more effective,” said Kumar.

“Rather than only understanding what has happened in the past, now the focus is on trying to predict the future and making some sort of prescription,” explained Dangi.

AI tools and jobs

Teachers said that much of these changes are to keep up with the advances in technology. Whether it is human resources or marketing, AI and other digital tools are increasingly becoming a part of the profession.

Even in white-collar jobs, which are high-level management positions, there is growing emphasis on data-driven decision making.

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“Management has become an evidence-based profession. Rather than relying on intuition, common sense and experience, now we expect them to do the same job with the help of the pattern that emerges from the data,” said Dangi.

“So far, we have been viewing AI as a separate discipline. My view is that in times to come, this will be imbibed in all disciplines. It will come to a point where you cannot visualise marketing without AI, HR without AI, finance without AI. It will become a part of the profession. If you’re a marketing guy you will be expected to know a little bit of AI as well,” said Dangi.

The IIM Ahmedabad study estimates that the job roles of data scientists, data engineers and enterprise architects will account for 15 to 20 percent of the projected demand for skilled employees in the field of AI and ML.