Is MBA still relevant in the age of AI?

By 2030, according to World Economic Forum 2025 report on Future of Jobs, 41% of global companies are considering reducing their workforce, paving the way for AI-powered solutions. That is translating into loss of whopping 92 million jobs worldwide. However, this change is going to offset job growth as well. By 2030, 78 million of […]

By 2030, according to World Economic Forum 2025 report on Future of Jobs, 41% of global companies are considering reducing their workforce, paving the way for AI-powered solutions.

That is translating into loss of whopping 92 million jobs worldwide. However, this change is going to offset job growth as well. By 2030, 78 million of jobs will be created. This essentially means that certain skills will be outdated, while some other new skills will be in demand. The key question here is, does MBA skills really pose the risk of being outdated?

Now, let’s talk about MBA – here in India MBAs have the cult of their own, especially from Top B schools. What do they teach during the 2 years? They cover multiple skills like Analytical skills, problem solving skills, strategic thinking, leadership skills, time management, people management, project management, decision making and so on.

Now, let’s talk about AI – what AI can do for you? They perform accounting tasks, write content, generate images, develop codes, predictability, financial modelling, risk assessment and so on based on prompts as provided by human. 51% of global companies adopting AI to enhance their cybersecurity, fraud prevention efforts. 47% of business leaders are considering using AI instead of hiring new employees. 83% of business executives consider AI as their strategic priority right now. AI, if leveraged intelligently add to multi fold efficiency gain, contributing to bottom line of the business.

As you see, there are less overlap among the skills that AI bring in and an MBA graduate bring in. Management jobs are relatively insulated from the AI onslaught. However, the problems are elsewhere. There are way too many supplies of MBAs in the market. India produces roughly 3,00,000 MBAs every year. Only a fraction of those is employed. According to Employability report- One in 4 MBAs, one in 5 Engineers, one in 10 Graduates are employable. That means, MBAs despite of being the best from the rest, still faces the employability challenge. The B-school tags are not sufficient, you need essential skills to back it up. This is where AI can be gamechanger even for the MBAs. Upskilling with AI capabilities makes the MBAs more competent in the job market. AI can be complementary skill to add to stay relevant. Professionals who can combine business acumen with AI knowledge are better positioned to adapt to emerging business environments.

Rise of Tech-integrated MBA programs and the decline of traditional MBA– A traditional MBA primarily focuses on enhancing an individual’s leadership and management skill. A tech-integrated MBA, on the other hand, combines traditional business knowledge with other technology specialized courses such as information security, project management, digital finance, analytics, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence. Data from LinkedIn and other job portals shows a drop of 55% in job openings requiring traditional MBAs such as Marketing, supply chain management, finance for the entry & mid-level roles. The tech-integrated specialized MBAs with intensive focus on Analytics, AI, Digital Product Management are on demand.

Thus, embracing the AI capabilities as complement to their expertise looks to be great combination to win in AI era.