Generative AI (GenAI) is transforming business and education at unprecedented speed. In response, business schools must equip students with both technical and ethical competencies. This article outlines Nottingham Business School’s strategy of integrating GenAI into curricula, emphasising practical application, responsible use, and critical thinking.  All programmes at the school prepare students for real-world challenges and AI is being comprehensively integrated for this reason.  The school promotes faculty training, student experimentation, and governance frameworks to ensure the effective and ethical use of GenAI. Alongside technical skills, soft skills such as creativity and empathy are prioritised to develop adaptable, AI-literate graduates ready to lead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

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From invention to adoption and general use, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), has been the fastest innovation in human history, and it is spreading at an unprecedented pace. Businesses are moving quickly towards redesigning workflows and governance frameworks so they can implement GenAI to boost productivity. Some are also using GenAI to create completely new ways of delivering products and services.

Compare this speed of adoption to two other technological innovations that have had profound impacts on our personal and professional lives – cars and the internet.  The former took around half a century to transition from introduction to widespread adoption; the latter took nearly a decade.

In contrast, less than three years after the launch of ChatGPT, 71% of respondents in the latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI have reported that their company uses GenAI in at least one business function. The survey garnered responses from 1,491 respondents at organisations in 101 countries, demonstrating the breadth of GenAI adoption in business.

The rapid implementation of GenAI within business processes and practices worldwide has created an urgent necessity for graduates with the technical skills to use these tools effectively and responsibly. There is a growing need for all organisations, large or small, to utilise AI to create and deliver their products and services.

Therefore, it is imperative for business schools to equip graduates with a thorough understanding of the capabilities and limitations of AI in general and GenAI in particular. The need for these skills will increase as new and more sophisticated AI tools become available.

Less than three years after the launch of ChatGPT, 71% of respondents in the latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI have reported that their company uses GenAI in at least one business function.

As senior leaders and programme directors of business schools adapt their educational offerings to keep up with new updates in technology, it will be increasingly important to focus on the practical applications of GenAI for businesses, teaching ethical and responsible use, and bolstering student’s transferable skills alongside technical proficiencies.

It is all too easy to accept what GenAI tools produce at face value, however, this can be dangerous as there are many biases and inaccuracies that AI apps for text, image, and video production generate, due to the way AI tools are developed.  We must therefore teach our students and clients to use GenAI carefully and critically.

Whilst GenAI can increase the speed of production by many orders of magnitude, the utility of what it produces very much depends on how it has been prompted and adapted for specific use.

We must use the power of AI to deliver education and research that is effective and has impact, leading to improvements in business practice, policy, economy, and within society. Therefore, instilling well-developed processes at the outset should benefit all. The development of ideas, testing and disseminating them, and getting them into our educational practice is crucial. The ethical use of AI must be at the forefront of our minds, we must not just learn best practices ourselves, but must also develop the ethical processes and governance mechanisms for use by public and private organisations.

Business schools are very well placed to be at the forefront of this important development.

Focusing on the Practical Application of GenAI in Education

The first encounter with GenAI for faculty has raised the question of how to ensure the integrity of assessments.  Some colleagues reacted with the view that we must defend our traditional methods and prevent the use of GenAI in this area, while others soon realised that this is neither productive nor possible, as this new technology will increasingly encroach on every facet of day-to-day life.

At Nottingham Business School (NBS) our approach stems from the principle that we are preparing our students for management and leadership roles in organisations and they will therefore need to learn how to work with AI effectively, thus we, as facilitators primarily need to learn how to utilise this technology ourselves. We created a motto of ‘Assessment for AI and AI for Assessment’. This means that we have to bring our faculty up to a minimum level of competence in the ethical use of GenAI. This encompasses our commitment to producing high-quality, impactful research that defines the opportunities, limitations, and challenges of using GenAI in business.

We have therefore constituted a continual dialogue with our business community as well as our colleagues and students across the university who have helped NBS craft an approach to teaching best practices around GenAI with the emphasis on practical learning. At the level of course design, one of the key ways this is achieved is by teaching GenAI in conjunction with other topics. For instance, NBS runs an MSc in Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, and an online microcredential in Digital Marketing and Artificial Intelligence.

These programmes set the foundation for students to understand the technology on a theoretical level while also focusing on specific functions of GenAI and how it can be deployed in ways to drive value creation for businesses.

Examples of this include modules on how to harness GenAI’s advanced data processing capabilities to create predictive analytics. Students learn how these tools can enhance their ability to anticipate market trends and consumer behaviour, equipping them with the skills to improve an organisation’s resilience.

At the individual level, we encourage students to experiment with GenAI tools in adherence to the university’s guidelines on safe and ethical use. Creating space for students to familiarise themselves with GenAI platforms outside the classroom encourages innovation and confidence with the new technology. For instance, GenAI can be used to summarise content, generate quizzes and other revision exercises, and even act as a debate partner to bounce ideas off. However, students must also bear in mind the limits and even risks that come with using this technology.

Teaching responsible and ethical use

As tightening EU regulations around GenAI demonstrates, any discussion about the opportunities created by this technology must also be tempered by an awareness of how it can be misused.

GenAI tools like ChatGPT often generate factually inaccurate content. While they can be useful study resources, able to summarise complex topics in simple terms, students must learn to diligently fact-check content produced by large language model (LLM) AIs.

Data security is also a significant concern.  Students are directed to refrain from giving GenAI access to their personal data, any copyrighted materials, and intellectual property belonging to the business school or university, such as lecture slides. This not only protects the safety and integrity of students and the business school alike, it also provides valuable guidelines for students on how to use this technology responsibly. These same practices will be equally important when they enter the workforce after graduation and may be responsible for maintaining an organisation’s cybersecurity.

The growing importance of ‘soft’ skills

While regulations and guidance frameworks offer a top-down approach to promoting responsible and effective GenAI use, investing in students’ transferable skills – also sometimes called ‘soft’ skills – forms a ground-up approach. Empathy, creativity, and critical thinking skills are widely acknowledged as a strong basis for leadership in business and management education, and create a secure foundation from which to manage business transformations empowered by GenAI.

For instance, leaders must exercise critical thinking skills when overseeing the implementation of GenAI in analytical functions. A clear-sighted approach is needed to fact-check the sources behind AI-generated content and weed out inaccuracies, biases and sometimes out-of-date information before using GenAI output to inform decision-making.

Similarly, creativity is needed to harness GenAI’s ability to synthesise different ideas, operations, and data sets. This enables business leaders and entrepreneurs to iterate at much faster speeds, refining and adapting their products, services, and operations to develop their competitive edge.

NBS designs its programmes to ensure the development of ‘soft’ skills as well as technical competency with GenAI tools. For instance, the executive education micro-credential in Digital Marketing and Artificial Intelligence is designed as a stackable qualification that can be combined with modules and courses on Leadership Resilience and Values-Driven Leadership, supporting participants to develop an innovative and analytical approach to leadership.

Creating a holistic approach to education around GenAI that focuses on the practical implications of this technology and developing guidelines for ethical use, will produce GenAI-literate graduates with transferable skills who will be in great demand in the international business community.

Business schools must continue to adapt their programme portfolios in line with new research about the opportunities and possible misuses of this technology. GenAI is moving at an unprecedented speed, and the business education sector must keep pace with new developments to ensure courses maintain their relevancy for businesses and students alike.