Porto Business School Dean José Esteves On AI & The Future Of MBAs

José Esteves studied artificial intelligence long before it became the latest business school staple. Trained as an informatic engineer, he’s worked in AI, technology, and innovation for 30 years, both in the corporate world and in education.

At IE Business School, where he was a professor for 18 years, he developed and launched Europe’s first Tech MBA and later became vice dean of the school’s International MBA where he pushed sustainability into the core curriculum. 

Now, as dean of Porto Business School, Esteves continues to embed sustainability and technology, including AI, into how future leaders think about business.

“We really need to rethink what is education, not only on the pedagogy and methodology, but also why are we teaching and what is the content,” says Esteves, dean and president of the executive board at Porto.

“Like it or not, humans and machines are going to compete. Learning how to lead in that environment will be the most massive transformation ahead.”

BUSINESS WITH AI AND SUSTAINABILITY AT THE CORE

Porto Business School sits under the umbrella of University of Porto, one of Portugal’s top-ranked universities. This year, it became the first business school in the world to launch a compulsory core course on AI for business, not on data analytics or technical skills, but on how AI is transforming business models and leadership itself. 

At the same time, the school is partnering with Biopolis, a European Union–sponsored research center with more than 200 scientists studying biodiversity and DNA, to translate cutting-edge science into business education. Earlier this year, Porto also announced a new MBA course on biodiversity and nature-based solutions that will run across all MBA programs.

Balancing these two areas is at the heart of Esteves’ leadership at PBS: AI, with its heavy water and energy demands and ethical questions around inequality and decision-making, and sustainability, which requires leaders to think about how technology and business affect everything from the climate to human livelihoods.

“AI doesn’t give you the right answer; it gives you options,” Esteves says. “Humans need to make the judgment and final decision. Accountability must stay with people, not AI. Otherwise, you are not a leader, you’re just following instructions.”

Q&A WITH PORTO DEAN JOSÉ ESTEVES

Esteves was born in Luanda, Angola, a former Portuguese colony, before his family resettled in Portugal after the war in his home country. He worked in corporate innovation and technology before he was recruited by IE Business School in Madrid. He later taught at the School of Science and Technology at IE before returning to Portugal two years ago to lead Porto Business School, a role he calls his next big challenge.

Poets&Quants recently sat down with Esteves to talk about Porto’s new MBA course on biodiversity, the school’s pioneering approach to AI in business education, and why he believes sustainability, geopolitics, and technology must all be central to how future leaders are trained.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

To start, why did you want to move into administration, and why business school administration, with your engineering and technology background?

Well, actually, it’s funny. Since I worked in the corporate world, I did a lot in innovation consulting; that was my area. During my time at IE, I also became chair of different research centers, so I was always trying to stay connected with industry. I did a lot of work with companies, and at one point they invited me to become head of department because I already had managerial skills from my corporate background.

I was doing research, publishing in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review, but I also kept that managerial side. At that time, Martin Boehm was the dean of IE Business School, and they wanted to launch a Tech MBA, and I launched the first Tech MBA in Europe. Since I had the MBA experience and a strong connection with technology and industry, I thought, why not try administration?

I liked it, and the move was actually quite natural.

What, in your opinion, is unique or special about Porto Business School? And what would you like it to be known for in the years to come?

Porto Business School was created by business leaders about 35 years ago. The idea was always that this is a school created by business leaders to educate business leaders. I really like that motto and mindset. The school has always tried to stay connected with industry.

We are affiliated with the University of Porto, which is one of the highest-ranked universities in Portugal, but we maintain that strong connection with business. That’s why I want Porto Business School to always be recognized for this. People come here because they know they will connect with business leaders, learn from their experiences, network, and exchange best practices. That mindset is central to the school.

We still do research, but we focus on applied research. Even in research, we remind ourselves that we are a business school. We need to create knowledge, but knowledge that is applied. That’s why we created an innovation hub with different centers. I want this school to be known at the forefront of innovation, transmitting forward-thinking leadership. Not just management, but leadership as a mindset.

There are two points I would emphasize. First, I came from a global, international business school, and I noticed something missing in some schools: they became so global that they lost their connection to local communities. I want Porto Business School to have both: a global perspective, with many international relations, but also a strong impact on the region and at the national level. Countries like Portugal really need their business schools to connect with their economies. It is not enough to talk about the global economy and multinational companies. If we cannot translate that to the local economy and regional needs, we are not doing a good job in terms of impact.

Second, I want us to transmit a new kind of leadership. For example, sustainability. At IE, I was one of the promoters of sustainability and launched a sustainability certificate. At Porto Business School, sustainability is embedded everywhere, even in the design of the building, which incorporates environmental, social, and economic aspects. I want to push forward in innovation as well. We need leaders who go beyond typical corporate managerial tools, people with entrepreneurial and innovative mindsets.

How do you think business schools should engage with AI? How is Porto engaging?

Actually, I studied artificial intelligence 30 years ago when I was doing my degree in informatics engineering. At that time, I studied AI, so I’m not new to the field. I’m not one of those people who just did a course and became an expert. For 30 years, I’ve published on it and taught it, so it’s always been part of my work. One of my students even wrote on LinkedIn recently that my predictions about AI from 10 years ago are now coming true. 

I truly believe AI is here to stay. It is already transforming society and business, and it is going to evolve faster than any other technology we’ve seen. Because I teach digital strategy and technology, this is my area, and I believe we need to incorporate AI into our curriculum. We also need to integrate it into the way we manage the business school itself.

I always present AI to students and leaders in two ways: first, as a tool to improve their work. But more importantly, as a paradigm shift. AI changes the way we work, communicate, and structure our workforce. We now have machines and humans working together, increasingly with agents and automation. In some areas, AI will perform better than humans. We have our strengths, but also limitations. So let’s combine the best of both. That’s what we call augmented intelligence.

Last year, Porto Business School became the first business school in the world to launch a compulsory core course on AI for business. Not on data analytics or technical AI – we already had that – but a breakthrough course on how AI will transform business. That’s why Porto Business School has received recognition and awards, and I’ve spoken at major conferences about it. The impact has been tremendous. Students love it because it’s not about learning prompts for ChatGPT. It’s about rethinking processes, strategy, and business models with an AI mindset.

We still have a course called People Management. You design processes and culture with a people mindset. But now, with around 30% of work already automated, not all “employees” are people anymore. We need to start thinking with a hybrid mindset. That’s where we’re going.

Now we are launching a transversal track for all programs at the school so that every student learns basic AI skills. This starts with the current intake. We call it Responsible AI, because it’s not only about generative AI, it also involves ethics and responsibility. This approach has been a huge success.

We recently published a new dynamic learning model with Blue Sky about how we incorporate AI into the learning process. This comes from innovation theory, where you have exploitation and exploration. Students need to master execution – performance and efficiency – but AI allows them to also ask, “Can I do this another way?” That is innovation. AI is very good at creating different scenarios. That doesn’t mean they are correct, but it pushes leaders to think differently.

That ties to responsibility as well. AI doesn’t give you the right answer; it gives you options. Humans need to make the judgment and final decision. Accountability must stay with people, not AI. Otherwise, you are not a leader, you’re just following instructions.

Why do you think sustainability belongs in an MBA program and in business education generally?

Since I was young, I’ve always loved nature. My family loves animals – my sister has 10 cats – and I enjoy painting nature. Growing up in Portugal, a very green country, I developed a strong sense of sustainability. But we also face big challenges: wildfires, biodiversity loss, and so on.

When I became responsible for the International MBA at IE, I noticed students complained that sustainability courses felt like something for Chief Sustainability Officers, not for them as future leaders. They wanted more relevance. So we changed the approach. We kept the sustainability course, but we also required each core MBA course to include a sustainability learning objective.

For example, in marketing, professors had to address sustainability issues. In my own technology class, when teaching e-commerce, I didn’t just cover Amazon and strategy. I also asked: What is the environmental impact of e-commerce? Packaging, recycling, waste. When teaching mobile commerce, I pointed out that less than 20% of mobile phones are recycled. We also discussed the metals used in phones and the human labor issues in places like Congo.

Even data centers became part of the discussion. With AI, the energy and electricity consumption of green technology is a huge problem. By integrating these topics, students began to realize that sustainability touches every business process. It’s not the job of one officer, it’s the responsibility of all leaders.

So my view is that sustainability must be embedded across the curriculum. Leaders need to see that in daily life, they are part of both the sustainability problem and the solution. That’s how we need to educate them.

Let’s talk about Porto’s new biodiversity course for the MBA. This is a core course, correct? I haven’t heard of a class so focused on biodiversity alone. Can you tell me about it and what the focus will be?

There was a study last year by the Center of Energy and Development at Duke Fuqua. It’s called Biodiversity and Business: What Every MBA Needs to Know. It presents some facts that should make us all think.

For example, the World Economic Forum reported that half of the global economy – about $44 trillion – is moderately or highly dependent on biodiversity. Businesses don’t usually think about this, but most industries depend on nature and biodiversity. At the same time, biodiversity loss has been identified as the fourth-highest global risk over the next 10 years.

When we talk about sustainability in business schools, it’s often at a high level: climate change, recycling, reducing waste. These are important, but sustainability has become a kind of commodity topic, something of a déjà vu. Everyone says the same things, but very few practical solutions are implemented. That’s why I wanted to go deeper, to focus on biodiversity itself, because if you drive down to the foundation of sustainability, you find biodiversity. It’s essential to farming, agribusiness, retail, energy, even data centers. Yet we don’t always see that connection.

Here in Portugal, we are fortunate to have Biopolis, one of the most important biodiversity research centers in the world. It’s an €18 million European Union–sponsored project with about 200 research scientists publishing in journals like Nature and Science. They specialize in biodiversity and DNA analysis. Porto Business School is their partner, and our role is to translate biodiversity research into business perspectives.

That’s where this course comes from. We want MBAs to understand biodiversity not just as an abstract scientific issue, but as a driver of business models and innovation. For example, we look at nature-based solutions—how companies can build strategies and practices that protect biodiversity while also generating value.

So the idea is to go beyond the buzzword of sustainability and address what really underpins it. Climate change, wildfires, species extinction, all of these challenges are linked to biodiversity. If we lose it, we lose the foundation for the next generation. That’s why I believe we must educate leaders to see biodiversity as central to business strategy.

Is the course based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs? Are you looking at those, or what exactly are students learning?

The SDGs don’t directly address biodiversity, but they include environment, and when we talk about the environment, we talk about ecosystems. Ecosystems are biodiversity. So what we do is educate students in that language: What is biodiversity? What is nature? What are ecosystems?

From there, we connect those foundations to the sustainability frameworks. One of the pillars of sustainability is environment, but most frameworks don’t dive deeply into what “environment” really means. This course does. It starts by giving students a strong foundation in nature, ecosystems, and biodiversity, and then the second part of the course focuses on how to translate that into the SDGs, especially on the environmental aspects.

It’s also very practical and experiential. We use a lot of case studies and real-world examples to help students see how biodiversity connects directly to business and sustainability frameworks.

Are you partnering with NGOs or businesses that are working in nature? What do these partnerships look like?

One of our main partnerships is with the Biopolis project, which is a huge biodiversity research initiative. They’ve created something called TwinLabs, and I can send you the links. For example, they are building DNA repositories around the world to preserve the DNA of different species, including plants. They already have seven of these repositories worldwide.

But it goes beyond preservation. For instance, Biopolis researchers recently discovered how parrots create their vivid colors. That research was published in Science. Based on that, they are now creating two startups to develop more sustainable methods of coloring fabrics. As you may know, textile coloring is one of the most toxic processes in clothing production. By mimicking the natural processes parrots use, they can produce more sustainable colors using natural components.

Another example is regeneration projects for environmental tourism. Instead of just cultural tourism, they are creating “nature tourism.” In regions like Africa, they are developing sustainable tourism initiatives that preserve biodiversity. For example, in Congo, despite the challenges of war, they’ve established premium tourism experiences where visitors learn about biodiversity and observe animals in their natural habitats. This has preserved parts of the country while also creating economic opportunities for local communities.

We are also working with NGOs and local communities to design business models around these ideas. Here in Portugal, for example, we’re working with fishing communities that are losing jobs due to industrialization. By reviving traditional practices and finding innovative ways to apply them, these communities can create new business models while preserving local ecosystems.

So the partnerships are about connecting cutting-edge biodiversity research, NGOs, and local communities to real, practical business solutions that benefit both nature and economies.

AI clearly has benefits for business and leadership, but at the same time we see this arms race between platforms that consume enormous amounts of water and energy. Do you think the benefits of AI – like augmented intelligence – will keep up with that consumption model? And how does a business school that believes in biodiversity think about bringing these two things together?

Basically, we need to educate AI leaders and tech people to also have a sustainability mindset. This is very important. Let me explain why.

When I was studying software engineering for my PhD, even 20 years ago, I was already thinking about how to improve algorithms to be more sustainability-oriented. The way you code has a huge impact on energy consumption. But traditionally, this is not something we teach in computer science. There’s actually a whole field called green technology. Depending on how efficient your source code is, you can either save or waste a lot of energy. That extends to processes, computing capacity, and the way we demand and allocate resources. Unfortunately, very few tech schools emphasize this.

So with AI, which is largely software-based, especially with large language models, the way you process information has enormous energy implications. Companies need to be more transparent and aware of that. One layer is software: how you design the models, code, and processing capacity. The other layer is hardware: the data centers themselves.

On the infrastructure side, companies like Google and Amazon have been investing heavily in greener data centers by using renewable energy, improving cooling systems, and so on. But we need both layers working together: green infrastructure and energy-aware software.

Right now, we’re still in the early, emergent phase of AI. The priority has been to build the technology itself, not optimize its energy use. That has happened with every major technology, even just the adoption of air conditioning in computing centers. In the first phase, companies focus on capability; only later do they address efficiency.

But as AI adoption grows and becomes mainstream, I believe energy and resource use will become a central concern. Companies will have to think about it. And you are right—this isn’t a short-term problem. In three or four years, if it’s not addressed, it will become a very big problem.

That said, I’m confident solutions will emerge. In technology, there’s always a natural evolution. First comes invention, then optimization. We already see research showing how new approaches, like DeepSeek, can reduce energy usage dramatically. So I think the trajectory will be the same with AI: right now, the noise is about capability, but the next wave will focus on making it sustainable.

When you say that’s something we need to talk about, do you mean as a business school, or more broadly as a society? Do business schools have a role in weighing these kinds of trade-offs?

I think business schools do, because I truly believe sustainability is part of business. Everyone designing business strategy must include sustainability as a pillar. If you are OpenAI or any other company using AI, you need to take accountability for the impact AI has on resources.

For example, we just measured Scope 3 emissions at Porto Business School. That means we now have to analyze all the consumption linked to our operations. If my business school, as a company, is consuming a lot of energy because employees are using AI, that becomes part of our Scope 3 footprint. So it’s not only the responsibility of AI developers, it’s also on the businesses that consume AI.

It’s the same as air conditioning. The companies that manufacture air conditioners must make them more efficient and green, but the companies that use them also bear responsibility for how much energy they consume.

So yes, this is definitely a business school issue, because we are educating the future business leaders who will manage companies with these trade-offs. But it’s also a broader societal issue. And governments, which fund and sponsor much of this innovation, should include sustainability criteria as well. So the responsibility lies on both levels.

What do you see as the big challenges and opportunities for MBAs and business education generally, and for Porto Business School moving forward?

I think this is a general problem. I was a speaker at recent conferences, and I said we radically need to redesign education, not only MBAs but business schools more broadly. We need to rethink what education really is.

It’s not only about pedagogy and methodology, but also about the why and what of education. What are we teaching? For example, when we are face-to-face with students – or online synchronously – should we still be teaching the basics? AI can already do scenario planning better than us. In recent years, even before AI, professors were shifting into a facilitator role. With AI, that shift is even greater.

But I always emphasize: AI is not going to give you the solution. It gives you options. Leaders need to make the decisions. Some people argue that we no longer need to teach content, because AI can provide it. I disagree. In order to have critical thinking, you first need knowledge. If you don’t understand the knowledge AI gives you, you cannot evaluate whether it is right.

So yes, we still need to teach content. But not just the basics – the kind of content that builds expertise so leaders can critically evaluate and make decisions. Take software engineering as an example. Some people say we don’t need software engineers anymore because AI can code. That’s not true. AI can generate source code, but someone has to validate it. That requires expertise that goes beyond the machine.

So the transformation of MBAs will be about focusing on the right content that gives students the critical knowledge to evaluate AI outputs, to think critically, and to keep decision-making at the human level.

Finally, the biggest opportunity – and challenge – is how we educate leaders to manage organizations where humans and AI agents work side by side. Like it or not, humans and machines are going to compete. Learning how to lead in that environment will be the most massive transformation ahead.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I think one important point is geopolitics and society. I see less and less awareness among business leaders about these issues, and there is a huge distance between business leaders and politicians. The global situation is very complicated, and many people prefer to ignore it.

For me, this is personal. I come from a country that experienced war. I lived through it, and my father died in the war. I know what that means. So I believe society cannot afford to be blind. Business leaders must have the courage to take a stand and be more exploratory in their role.

Traditionally, companies try to remain neutral, but I’m not sure that is possible in today’s business reality. When I did my MBA, the message was that business leaders should focus on negotiation and avoid politics. I don’t think that works anymore. Politics is part of business. The question is not whether to be involved, but how much and in what way.

That’s why we created our Observatory on Business and Geopolitics at Porto Business School. We cannot separate politics from business. Employees are asking for it, and society is demanding it. Business schools must prepare leaders to navigate this. The traditional idea that business and politics exist in separate spheres no longer reflects reality.

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