Rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) promises greater efficiency and adaptability for business schools. It has the potential to automate repetitive tasks, streamline administrative processes and assist faculty in creating more interactive course materials, such as simulation-based assessments to test students’ knowledge.
However, widespread concerns remain that implementing new technologies in the classroom could take precedence over human interactions, eroding a crucial aspect of what makes business and management degrees so valuable. And many business school deans and faculty worldwide see generative AI (GenAI) as a double-edged sword, according to a report from the global accrediting body AACSB International.
AI’s ability to support more engaging learning activities has the potential to enhance students’ critical-thinking and creative problem-solving skills, but it also risks undermining those skills if students become reliant on quick-and-easy AI-generated content. If cognitively demanding learning tasks are simply handed over to an AI, the students’ products may look good at first glance, but the learning effects from the deeper engagement with the content may not materialise. In an analogy to the “ghost writer effect”, when the quality of an AI-written text is attributed to one’s own capabilities, this could be called a “ghost learner effect”, when students are able to pass an exam without having achieved the learning goals.