How AI Is Evolving in Business Schools

• In addition to changing attitudes about the technology’s value in the classroom, the report cites that educators are placing a lot of trust in students and widening access to generative AI tools.
• Schools have pointed out the challenges that still surround AI, such as ensuring its responsible use, aligning learning outcomes with employer demands, and recognizing its limitations.
• Business schools will need to continue collaborating to ensure the next generation of graduates are equipped with workplace-ready AI skills.

For Saif Mehkari, the question of whether to implement AI at the University of Richmond Robins School of Business was actually a straightforward one.

“For any school, a big decision-making point is: Do our students need it?” explains the professor of economics. “And if you hear that this is something that employers are looking for, it becomes imperative for us to teach it.”

But now, Robins and many other schools around the world are shifting to the next questions regarding AI: How do we make it a foundational part of the curriculum? How do we align AI learning with employer expectations? How do we make sure it is accessible to all students?

These types of questions underpin a new report titled A Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Business Education, collaboratively produced by Inspire Higher Ed, AACSB, the Graduate Management Admission Council, and the Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable. Based on input from nearly 50 AACSB member schools, the report examines how the use of AI is changing in business schools—and how we can expect it to evolve in the future.

Here are some of the key themes that emerged from the report.

Schools Are No Longer on the Defensive

Perhaps the most notable change has been the attitudes of schools toward the technology. Initially, many universities and business schools were defensive about genAI tools, often restricting access or banning them altogether. But as Zhe Shan, associate professor and director of AI initiatives at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business explains, those attitudes have shifted.

“Now we’re at the second stage: How do we integrate AI into our teaching? We’re no longer treating [the tools] as an enemy. We’re treating them as a partner.”

Instead of banning or restricting AI use for classes, schools are challenging students on how best to use it. For instance, Shan says that students at Farmer are asked to “double-check” AI-generated outputs. “You then need to tell me how you can verify that this is correct. In that sense, we’re treating AI as a partnership.”

Trust in Students Remains High

A couple of years ago, professors using AI in the classroom were already placing a lot of trust in students, “essentially leaving it up to the students whether or not they use GenAI tools that can literally pass exams themselves.” That remains true today, according to the report.

Although trust remains high, questions about where to draw the line also persist.

“It’s an interesting line,” says Mehkari. “You want to teach them [AI skills], but you also need them to learn basic skills without generative AI tools. How do you set that line, and where do you set that line?”

Shan adds that although the threat of students cheating on exams or assignments hasn’t gone away, it has been mitigated by more sophisticated AI detection tools that are now available. Whether schools will rely on these tools or restrict access to AI remains to be seen.

AI Teaching Is Becoming Foundational

Another key shift in schools’ approaches to AI is that the technology is becoming a foundational rather than an optional part of the curriculum.

For example, the report highlights an initiative from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business that provides every student with AI training before they begin their studies. The school shared that, beginning in fall 2025, “every incoming Foster student completes an AI bootcamp to practice harnessing AI tools for productivity, creativity, learning, and research.”

The report further reads, “The school established six formal AI learning objectives that apply to all students: explaining core AI concepts, applying AI tools for business productivity, designing AI-enabled business solutions, evaluating AI’s strategic business impact, assessing the ethics of AI, and cultivating a lifelong AI learning mindset.”

For schools like Foster, AI mastery is fast becoming non-negotiable.

An Employer Expectation Gap Persists

Employers are increasingly demanding workers with AI skills. According to the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey: 2025 Report, “skills in AI tools” grew more in importance than any other skill between 2024 and 2025.

The problem, according to Mehkari, is that many employers “don’t know what they want yet.” They want employees with genAI skills but are unclear on the specific skills they’re demanding.

Business schools should become the link between recruiters and AI.

Shan believes that this lack of certainty mainly applies to smaller employers, which is creating a slight misalignment when it comes to AI skills in the workplace. “If you’re talking about the top consulting companies, they already have an AI framework. But the small- and medium-sized companies, they have no idea what’s going on.” He believes business schools should become the link between recruiters and AI. “We can develop a way to help you figure out how you should equip your workforce with AI skills.”

Although AI mastery is becoming a big part of business school curricula, Mehkari thinks it’s important for business students to avoid becoming overreliant on the tools when they enter the workplace.

“There’s a balance,” he says. “You want to use it as a tool but not be overreliant on it. And you want to double-check everything. So that’s what we’re teaching our students: this tool is to help you, not replace you.”

AI’s Limitations Are Better Understood

As we mentioned in our 2024 article, AI is an exciting technology, but it remains an emerging one. That’s why schools should embrace its possibilities while acknowledging its limitations.

Katherine Guthrie is the assistant dean of teaching excellence and pedagogical innovation at College of William and Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business. She says that as faculty comfort with the technology has grown, so too has their understanding of its limits.

“For example, in analytics and market research courses, some faculty now allow structured AI use to support exploratory data analysis or scenario generation, while requiring students to document how AI outputs were evaluated, revised, or rejected.”

According to Guthrie, access to AI in other courses has been restricted at Mason to ensure that “students first develop foundational analytical or ethical reasoning skills.” This has allowed faculty to understand where AI can support learners and where it can undermine learning objectives.

Access to AI Is Expanding

As AI tools are increasingly integrated into business school curricula, the need to ensure fair access to these tools is likewise growing.

“We have had to grapple with questions about equity, particularly ensuring that AI use does not advantage students with greater prior exposure or access,” says Guthrie.

At Robins, Mehkari has played a fundamental role in widening access to AI tools. He developed SpiderAI, an app that provides campuswide free access to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. He was awarded the 2025 Harris Award for Excellence in Instructional Technology from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges for his innovation.

The report also cites the work at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, which opted to launch a free online course, Leveraging AI for Business, aimed at equipping as many students as possible with the fundamentals of AI. Nearly 400 students took the course in its first semester.

Although these approaches to AI may differ, they share one core belief: generative AI tools must be available to all. As they become more widely used, Shan believes the role of business schools in harnessing the technology will grow alongside them.

“These AI models are just the starting point of a whole new era,” he says. “And business schools are at the forefront of it.”