Evolving the Case Method for an AI Era

• Generative AI is transforming organizations’ business models and workforce expectations, compelling business schools to rethink both what and how they teach.
• By requiring independent preparation, peer debate, and real-time decision-making, the case method cultivates the critical thinking skills that AI-driven workplaces demand most.
• Today’s business schools must move beyond knowledge transfer to prioritize the judgment, critical thinking, and relationship management skills that define long-term professional success.

Transcript

Julian Birkinshaw: [00:13] Digital transformation is changing, has to change both what we teach at business schools and how we teach at business schools. If we focus right now on generative AI, everybody wants to talk about generative AI.

[00:29] First of all, we’ve got to make sure our students are AI-ready. They actually understand what these technologies are doing. They’ve got to have the skills that allow them to be successful in business.

[00:41] Because AI is changing the business models of companies, it is changing the nature of the jobs many of them will do. It’s changing the productivity, if you like, of companies.

[00:51] So we’ve got to make sure students have the knowledge of what is needed. At the same time, we’ve also got to figure out ways to change how we teach to ensure students continue to learn.

[01:05] It’s a fairly obvious point, but right now, generative AI, because it changes everything, is fundamentally rewiring how learning happens. We are having to be quite innovative in rethinking how students learn.

We’ve got to figure out ways to change how we teach to ensure students continue to learn.

[01:21] And the sort of basic point here is knowledge. Basic knowledge is a commodity. Therefore, what we need to do is ensure that students build skills, as well as, shall we say, judgment and decision-making, on top of that basic knowledge to be successful in the workplace.

[01:39] So at Ivey Business School, we’ve always believed in the case method of learning. We believe the case method of learning is more important than ever because it actually provides a forum for students to argue with one another. They build critical thinking skills. They build the opportunity to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty.

[02:01] It forces you to do the prep work in advance to make sure that you understand what is going to be discussed. It also puts you on the spot. It forces you to take on the role of the decision-maker.

[02:15] That sort of experiential learning is at the heart, I think, of what makes successful business people. Now, AI is absolutely changing that context, because many students are choosing to shortcut the reading of the case study.

Case method of learning is more important than ever because it actually provides a forum for students to argue with one another.

[02:30] So the case method has to adapt, and I’ll give you one specific example. We call it AIBEL: Artificial Intelligence-Boosted Experiential Learning. That’s the name we’ve given to this little product.

[02:42] And it’s nothing more than an AI professor, an AI tutor that, rather than giving the students quick answers to the students’ questions because that’s the lazy way of using AI, what it’s doing is it’s actually asking the students questions itself, so that the students have to prepare answers then.

[03:00] It’s a good way for students to get up to speed on the case study by talking to an AI professor, so that when they show up in class, they’ve got a much deeper understanding of it.

[03:14] That’s important for the simple reason that at the moment, students are putting the case studies through artificial intelligence, and they’re shortcutting their learning.

[Business schools] are no longer a place where students just learn the basic facts of business.

[03:25] We’re trying to figure out ways of using AI, actually, to make learning more challenging. The best way to learn is to confront difficulties and to overcome them, rather than just to have ready answers fed to you.

[03:38] My starting point for a conversation about what business schools need to do differently is that we shouldn’t lose the huge assets that we have going for us. We credentialize students. We have very strong alumni networks. We provide a mechanism to help recruiters pick the best students for jobs.

[04:02] Those are the assets that we will sort of double down on as business schools to ensure that whatever happens in the world of technology, whatever technology does to the learning, those things are actually at the core of what we do, because those are things we can capitalize on to make sure that we endure through whatever changes come our way.

[04:22] We are no longer a place where students just learn the basic facts of business. There’s got to be a place where we learn skills of judgment, decision-making, critical thinking, and relationship management.