It is the summer of 2026 and the Deans of the Council on Business & Society host a panel discussion on the Fudan University School of Management Zhengli campus in Shanghai. The event brought together alumni from the CoBS member schools living and working in the region, CoBS school students on their international study week, senior management, and practitioners around the theme of the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of education and work.

With kind thanks to the students and alumni of the CoBS schools School of Management Fudan University, ESSEC Business School, FGV EAESP, Keio Business School, Monash Business School, Stellenbosch Business School, Trinity Business School, Warwick Business School, and the Fudan and CoBS organising team: Lihua Xu, Lin Yan, Yangxin Han, Lu He, Shuling Fang, Adrian Zicari, and Tom Gamble. With gratitude to the Deans’ panel, faculty and management representatives (in alphabetical order): Tales Andreassi, Armand Bam, Concepcion Galdón, Matthew Gibb, Jo Horton, Angela James, Andy Lockett, Xiaoning Liang, Xiongwen Lu, Aarti Ramaswami, Keikoh Ryu, Vincenzo Vinzi, Simon Wilkie, Fuqiang Zhang.

In the following, we’re delighted to share with you both an executive summary of the takeaways and the full proceeds of the panel via the event publication Are we teaching the future or the past? Re-thinking Responsible Business Education in the Age of AI.

This special issue publication draws on the outputs of the discussion panel, debate and questions from the audience to 4 major questions:

• What business schools can do to prepare their students for AI and the 4^th Industrial Revolution
• Should business schools and universities change the system entirely or improve it little by little?
• Developing skills, technical expertise, or developing people: Where should business schools position themselves?
• What advice would the Deans and schools they represent offer their students at the start of their studies?

Executive Summary

Business Schools and AI: Preparing for a tech-driven world ahead – without forgetting the human essentials

AI is changing the world faster than traditional educational cycles can accommodate, which creates a dilemma for higher education institutions. Moreover, developing thoughtful, ethical leaders takes time and, as such, business schools need to balance this urgency to adapt with the patience required to develop deep capabilities.

These capabilities are likely to increase in importance as routine cognitive work becomes easier to automate: judgment, self-awareness, and the ability to understand and relate to others are but some of these.

Indeed, preparing students for the future is not only about offering them new tools to boost performance and results, but helping them to study how they comprehend society, business and organisations, and relationships between different stakeholders. The cultural dimension is equally as important, providing students with opportunities to meet, study and work with other cultures to ensure that they are capable of challenging assumptions and grow aware of what brings people and organisations together rather than pulling them apart.

Business Schools and AI: Developing skills, technical expertise, and people

The excellence that leading business schools aim for must be matched by relevance – which means breaking down silos and promoting disciplinary depth and broader, cross-disciplinary understanding.

As such, AI, sustainability, geopolitics, social inclusion, technology and economic performance cannot be addressed independently and the emphasis should be put on students developing a systems-thinking approach, connecting seemingly individual and separate challenges to draw a bigger picture of how each challenge impacts, interacts with – and largely inter-depends on – the other.

Often heard is the assumption that AI will take over human intelligence, tasks and even decisions. But in a world where artificial intelligence will be widely used – at all levels of society and of work – the critical difference will be made in offering students educational experiences that expose them to alternative perspectives and forms of leadership. These will help develop experimental, collective and critical thinking, as well as the vital capacities of creativity, innovation, ethical discernment and resourcefulness that are so unique to humankind. In addition, in a volatile, complex world, they will enable students and graduates to make informed and objective decisions.   

To return to transdisciplinary, business schools can also embed the arts and humanities in their business and economics-based curricula to shape well-informed future graduates. Indeed, literature, history, philosophy and the humanities help people understand human behaviour, identify leadership attributes, and develop self-awareness and reflect on what constitutes a good life and a responsible organisation.

And finally, regarding responsible leadership and business practices in the age of AI, it is important to ensure that students are provided with the opportunity to integrate not only international law, legislation, compliance and regional policies, but also universal values that provide a compass point for decisions and behaviour, and a will to exercise their conscience in asking whether their decisions and the organisations they will work for enable people to do what is right.  

Download your copy of the event takeaway and enjoy your reading! To join the debate, please join the post and thread via the CoBS on LinkedIn.

View the Deans’ welcome in the event video:

Learn more about the Council on Business & Society

The Council on Business & Society (CoBS), visionary in its conception and purpose, was created in 2011, and is dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and tackling issues at the crossroads of business, society, and planet including the dimensions of sustainability, diversity, social impact, social enterprise, employee wellbeing, ethical finance, ethical leadership and the place responsible business has to play in contributing to the common good.  

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Member schools of the Council on Business & Society.

• ESSEC Business School, France, Singapore, Morocco
• FGV-EAESP, Brazil
• School of Management Fudan University, China
• IE Business School, Spain
• Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
• Keio Business School, Japan
• Monash Business School, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia
• Olin Business School, USA
• Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada
• Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa
• Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.