AI cannot replace human connection in higher education, write Benjamin Stevenin, Washika Haak-Saheem and Lakshmi Goel
Is the future of business education destined to be fully AI-driven, with students sitting at home passively absorbing content from algorithms and digital platforms? The short and clear answer is: no. Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly reshape how we learn, but it cannot replace the essence of business education: human connection, interdisciplinary exploration, and the capacity to lead across cultures and industries.
Today’s students want more than technical expertise. They seek a broader education that blends the rigor of finance, strategy, and analytics with exposure to the humanities, sciences, and global perspectives. In other words, they want a transversal education—grounded in business, yet reaching across disciplines to prepare them for a complex, fast-changing world.
FROM SILOED TO TRANSVERSAL
AI thrives on specialization—optimizing logistics, parsing financial data, and generating predictive insights. But effective leadership requires the opposite: connecting the dots across silos. A transversal curriculum dismantles these silos. Imagine finance taught alongside environmental science to equip students for sustainable investing. Picture marketing paired with anthropology to reveal cultural drivers of consumer behavior. Consider strategy linked with ethics and philosophy to ensure leaders weigh the social consequences of their choices.
Pioneering schools are moving in this direction. ESCP’s multi-campus model pushes students to live and learn in diverse ecosystems across Europe. Yale SOM blends business with politics and law. MIT Sloan teams MBAs with engineers on innovation projects, while Stanford GSB has long encouraged cross-enrollment in the humanities and design. IE University in Madrid is also experimenting with integrated, boundary-spanning curricula. Together, these models show that the future of business education is not just about management—it is about purpose and impact.
RETHINKING INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS
If AI can deliver lectures and grade assignments, what makes business school worth the investment? Increasingly, it is the ability to engage with industry in real time.
Leading institutions are reinventing partnerships. At HEC Paris, students consult for global companies and startups. Michigan Ross embeds teams in organizations worldwide through its MAP program. NYU Stern focuses on tech and entertainment, forging pipelines where business intersects with culture.These collaborations are not only about career placements. They prepare students to apply transversal thinking in practice, in contexts where sectoral and disciplinary boundaries blur.
RESTORING THE HUMAN DIMENSION
AI may teach accounting, but it cannot teach judgment. It may simulate negotiations, but it cannot replicate the cultural nuance of working across borders. This is why integrating the liberal arts into business curricula is no longer optional—it is essential.
At Harvard Business School, leadership and society courses ask students to grapple with moral dilemmas. Berkeley Haas challenges students to “question the status quo.” Georgetown McDonough embeds Jesuit traditions of reflection and responsibility alongside business fundamentals. These programs remind us that business is not only about markets. It is about people, communities, and values. In a machine-driven future, those human capacities will set graduates apart.
THE NEW MANDATE FOR BUSINESS SCHOOLS
Tomorrow’s business schools will not be judged solely on how well they teach finance or analytics. Their success will be measured by how effectively they prepare graduates to navigate a world where business intersects with technology, politics, society, and culture.
The formula is clear:
- Business remains the anchor. Rigorous training in finance, marketing, and operations is indispensable.
- Interdisciplinarity is the method. Curricula intentionally blend business with arts, sciences, and global studies.
- Human connection is the outcome. Students leave with networks, cultural fluency, and the ability to lead with empathy.
The future is not about replacing classrooms with algorithms. It is about reimagining classrooms as spaces where business meets everything else. From that intersection, tomorrow’s leaders will emerge—leaders who are not only prepared to manage organizations, but to shape societies with purpose and impact.
Washika Haak-Saheem is dean of Dubai Business School, University of Dubai, UAE. Lakshmi Goel is dean of the School of Business Administration at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco.Benjamin Stevenin is special adviser to Poets&Quants and former Director of Business School Solutions and Partnerships at Times Higher Education.
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