Importance of AI for MBA Students in 2025

Benefits of Learning AI for MBA Students

Improved Decision Making- One of the biggest strengths of AI is the ability to improve decision-making. By learning how to interpret AI-based recommendations, MBA students can enhance their decision-making skills and reduce the risk of errors.

Increased Employability- Nowadays, companies prefer candidates who have knowledge of both business and technology. Employers are actively looking for MBA graduates who understand AI, machine learning and data analytics.

Greater Efficiency in Business Operations- AI is widely used to automate routine and repetitive tasks. It can help reduce the workload of customer service teams.

Rising Importance of AI in Business

Artificial Intelligence is widely used in different sectors such as finance, marketing, healthcare, and supply chain. According to the same report, 92 per cent of companies plan to increase their investment in AI over next three years. Only one per cent leaders believe their organisations have achieved AI maturity, which means AI is fully integrated into their workflows and delivering consistent business outcomes.

This represents an opportunity for MBA students, with the right combination of business knowledge and AI understanding, they can have a great career in Artificial Intelligence.

The Employee–Leader Gap in AI Usage

One of the most surprising aspects from the McKinsey report is the gap between what leaders think and what employees do with AI. Leaders often underestimate AI adoption, but employees are three times more likely to be using AI tools in their daily work than leaders realise.

For MBA graduates, this gap can act as a bridge. By learning both AI skills and organisational behaviour. MBA students can ensure that businesses adopt AI in ways that are practical and widely accepted.

AI Adoption and Training

McKinsey’s report shows that 48 per cent of employees rank formal training as the most important factor for AI adoption. 84 per cent of international employees feel they are received AI training by their organisations, while just over half of US employees feel the same.

This highlights a clear opportunity for future managers and business leaders. They should be driven to design better training frameworks and ensure that employees or their team members are equipped with skills to use AI effectively for projects.

The Role of Managers and Future Leaders

Another key finding from the report is two thirds of the managers say they get questions from their team about how to use AI, and similar per cent of managers say they recommend AI tools to solve problems. MBA graduates, as future managers and leaders, can formalise this role, by creating structured policies, offering guidance, and ensuring effective AI adoption across teams.

The Economic Potential of AI

McKinsey estimates that AI could add $4.4 trillion annually in productivity from corporate use cases alone. This means AI will play a major role in business growth, market strategies, and innovation. Leaders who can understand and manage AI effectively will be in high demand across various industries.

The Future of AI in Workplaces

Artificial Intelligence has advanced a lot in the past few years. According to the McKinsey report, the biggest innovations in AI are-

• Enhanced Intelligence
• Reasoning Capabilities
• Agentic AI
• Improved Hardware
• Computational Powers

Challenges MBA Students Should Know About AI

While AI offers immense opportunities, it also comes with challenges:

Ethical Concerns- Misuse of AI can lead to privacy issues and biased decisions.

Fear of Job Replacement- AI is sometimes viewed as a threat to jobs because of its automation capabilities. MBA students often worry that partial operations of finance, marketing, and HR can be replaced by AI capabilities.

Cost of Implementation- Small businesses or startups may struggle with the financial investment required for AI systems.

Rapidly Changing Technologies- AI is evolving at a fast pace, and to keep up with these developments, along with balancing their studies, can be difficult for MBA students.

Conclusion

AI is transforming how organisations work; however, most of the businesses are still in the early stages of adoption. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for MBA students, by developing AI skills, understanding employee mindsets and learning how to adopt AI effectively can help bridge this gap.

“It is critical to have a genuinely inspiring vision of the future [with AI] and not just a plan to fight fires.” - Dario Amodel, Cofounder and CEO of Anthropic.