How 5 Business Schools Are Sensibly Adopting AI

• Most business schools accept that students will use AI in admissions and assessments. But instead of introducing outright restrictions, they’re finding innovative ways to limit any negative impact.
• New measures range from teaching AI literacy to students, introducing image and video essays, and renewing their focus on in-person interviews.
• Schools are also setting out their stance on AI long before students start their course.

It would be wrong to say that business schools are fighting back against AI. That would suggest the technology is having a wholly negative impact within business education. Rather, schools are finding innovative ways to accentuate the positives and limit the negatives.

For instance, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business brought together application guidance in one location to make sure AI bots scrape the correct information, while the University of Chicago Booth School of Business recently implemented a 300-character limit on its application essays to make it harder for prospective students to rely on AI.

These are just two examples. To better understand the current landscape around AI adoption and management, we spoke to five influential business schools from around the world. Their responses reveal the wide range of approaches institutions are taking.

Restrictions Are Rare

Although AI policies differ from school to school, none of those covered here had introduced outright restrictions on the technology. Instead, they’re finding ways to exist alongside it.

“Generative AI is now used by the vast majority of our community. An internal survey in late 2024 found that 88 percent of students, faculty, and staff had already used a generative AI tool, most frequently for brainstorming, editing, and literature research,” explains Olivier Gallay, vice dean for programs and student affairs at HEC Lausanne in Switzerland. “Rather than fighting that reality, we have chosen to live with it and set clear expectations.”

Staff are encouraging students to use [AI] as a support tool rather than a replacement for thinking.

At HEC Lausanne, those expectations fall into three broad categories of AI use: encouraging transparency, establishing course rules, and training students.

The story is similar at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. According to Melissa Rapp, the school’s associate dean of graduate admissions, rather than policing candidates’ use of AI, the school is designing “admissions processes that encourage genuine reflection and allow us to understand the person behind the application.”

Rapp accepts that applicants are likely to employ AI at some point, so the staff are encouraging students to use it as a support tool rather than a replacement for thinking.

Transparency Is Encouraged

Schools are also encouraging students to be open about their use of AI.

“If someone uses these tools to improve the clarity or structure of their essay, that’s fine,” says Stephanie Kluth, director of degree program admissions at ESMT Berlin. “What matters to us is that what they submit is still genuinely theirs, reflecting their own experiences, motivations, and interest in the program.”

John Thomson, who is the director of ESMT’s Learning Innovation Lab, suggests that the school may even move toward a model “where students would be evaluated on how they use AI—not just what it produces.”

At HEC Lausanne, transparency and AI are also increasingly intertwined. “Where AI assistance is used in coursework, it must be disclosed, much like any other source,” says Gallay.

AI Literacy Is Key

Another key theme of business schools’ approaches to AI is in the teaching of it.

HEC Lausanne is training both students and faculty to use AI tools critically by flagging their weaknesses, such as providing accurate information and producing generic copy. Goizueta has introduced a mandatory module to its full-time MBA that covers the latest developments in AI. And at ESCP Business School in France, all students must complete an online generative AI course during their first semester.

Transparency and AI are increasingly intertwined.

“The course explores both the opportunities and limitations of generative AI and provides clear guidelines for using it responsibly,” explains Louis-David Benyayer, the AI initiatives coordinator at ESCP. “Completion of the course is required for students to maintain access to the AI tools provided by ESCP.”

The course covers the basics and the latest in AI but has also expanded recently to cover ethical and environmental concerns around the technology.

Schools Are Setting the AI Agenda

One of the biggest issues that business schools have faced since the explosion of AI is a lack of control. For a long time, it felt like they had been playing catch-up, trying to introduce controls for a technology that was evolving quicker than they could handle. But schools are finally starting to set the agenda.

ESCP is doing that by moving toward a credit-based model of AI use, in which each student receives a monthly allocation of AI credits. “This encourages more intentional and responsible use by prompting students to choose the right AI tool for the right task rather than using AI systematically or unnecessarily,” says Benyayer.

Aside from that, all ESCP students now receive a charter prior to their studies outlining how they are expected to engage with AI during their time there. They receive similar guidance at the start of every course. And just like at HEC Lausanne, ESCP professors are encouraged to “decide the level of AI use authorized in their courses.”

Video- and Image-Based Applications Are Coming to the Fore

When it comes to admissions, school officials are also finding ways to limit any negative impact of AI rather than outlaw it entirely.

For example, Goizueta Business School is increasingly requesting video rather than written essays from applicants. This measure will ideally prompt prospective students to submit “more spontaneous responses,” according to Rapp.

School officials are also finding ways to limit any negative impact of AI rather than outlaw it entirely.

Other schools are finding similarly creative ways to assess applicants. Lindsay Loyd is the executive director of MBA admissions at New York University’s Stern School of Business. She says that a pre-ChatGPT addition to the school’s application process has proven “invaluable” in an AI-powered world.

“One of our essays, the very popular Pick 6 visual essay in which applicants share six images that show us who they are as people and what they’ll bring to the Stern community, is relatively AI-proof. Applicants now tell us it’s one of the best parts of our application.”

Interviews Are Even More Important

Other schools are largely sticking to text-based application processes but limiting the influence of AI in different ways.

ESMT Berlin’s Stephanie Kluth explains that while AI “might help someone express something better, the actual thinking and experience behind the answer still has to come from the applicant.”

“The interview is a key part of this,” she continues. “It lets us dig deeper into someone’s motivations and confirm that the person we meet matches the application we’ve read.”

This approach neatly summarizes the overall approach to AI in business education today. Instead of putting restrictions in place, schools are encouraging openness and transparency. Instead of playing catch-up, they’re setting the agenda. And rather than simply hoping students don’t manipulate existing evaluation methods, institutions are innovating their assessment methods.

The AI revolution is far from over. But after the initial panic, it seems that schools are finally finding ways to exist agreeably alongside the technology.