BT Best B-Schools & HR Summit was held on June 23, where Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar was the Chief Guest. Apart from him, several industry leaders and eminent academicians shared their views on the new age of B-schools in India
IIM Ahmedabad Director Prof. Bharat Bhasker talked about the entry of AI in the field of education. During a conversation with Sourav Majumdar, Editor, Business Today, he asked, “Open AI and ChatGPT can pass the MBA exams so are MBA exams relevant anymore?"
Prof. Bhaskar Chakrabarti, Dean-Academics, IIM Calcutta, talked about the relevance of B-schools in the age of AI and online education as he said, “We need to start re-thinking education, where we are trying to bring in some of these ed-techs in order to give a flavour of how this is going to unfold tomorrow."
S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) Dean Dr Varun Nagaraj talked about how AI might disrupt management education as he said, "The entire evaluation process can be changed, AI is capable of being your own guru much more than any faculty can."
Prof Sangeeta S Bharadwaj, Acting Director, MDI Gurgaon, talked about how her institute has incorporated Artificial Intelligence tools already. She said, "We have to include AI in our curriculum, we have already included courses like data analytics but if we cross the line, we also have to include ethics in AI and leadership in AI."
BT Editor Sourav Majumdar asked XLRI Jamshedpur Director Fr S George, "How are you preparing the students for the new-age skill gap caused by the technology advancements from the perspective of employers as well?” To this, Fr George responded, “We are constantly in touch with the industry, that is how we know what is the demand of the corporates and every year, we revise the curriculum."
"We have already started using AI, we want to use it for the admission process as well. Secondly, we have bought the licence for some courses on Coursera for our students, so they pick and choose the skills that interest them,” said Fr S George of XLRI Jamshedpur
IIMA’s Prof. Bharat Bhasker said, "Why is it that the Indian B-schools don't rank up there as far as the global pecking or order is concerned.” He added, "Bringing internationalisation has not been a key factor for our B-Schools for many years.”
In another session, author Ashwin Sanghi talked about the art and craft of an MBA during a conversation with Business Today's Technology Editor Aayush Ailawadi. Sanghi said, “We need to integrate the art of storytelling with the B-schools' curriculum as the best way to convince someone is through a story.” He further talked about using the latest technology including AI and its generative-tool ChatGPT, "I have been using ChatGPT to get some quick facts about my book."