Rebuilding The Business School For The AI Age: Why Emotional Intelligence May Matter More Than Technical Skill

As artificial intelligence reshapes the future of work and learning, business schools face an uncomfortable truth: the success of their transformation will depend less on how quickly they adopt technology and more on how courageously their leaders embrace experimentation, empathy, and failure.

At a recent panel on “Rebuilding the Business School for the AI Age,” global deans and educators converged around one urgent message: business schools must fundamentally rebuild themselves for this new era. Incremental tweaks will not suffice. The real challenge lies not in acquiring the latest tools, but in cultivating the emotional intelligence and institutional culture required to use them wisely.

BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS: PEDAGOGY FIRST

Panelists agreed that technology should be a servant of learning, not its master. “AI, VR, and immersive tech can enhance the classroom,” one participant noted, “but only if they serve the pedagogy, not the other way around.” Otherwise, innovation risks becoming performative rather than purposeful.

True innovation depends on creating what one speaker called a “space to fail,” where faculty and students can test, learn, and iterate without fear of penalty. Yet that is easier said than done in an environment where shrinking budgets, bureaucratic constraints, and reputational risk make bold experimentation difficult.

Here, leadership becomes decisive. Deans and senior teams must model the same curiosity and humility they ask of their faculty. When leaders themselves experiment with new tools, even imperfectly, they signal that learning and failure are not only acceptable but expected.

THE DENIAL PROBLEM

One of the most striking moments came when a panelist likened higher education to the monarchy: sustained by tradition and public belief rather than agility. “As long as people believe in the MBA, we’ll be fine,” the thinking goes. But faith alone will not protect institutions facing enrollment decline, mounting costs, and questions about the degree’s value.

The call was for “ruthless, honest conversations” about the sector’s future, about what business schools are really for, how they measure impact, and how they prepare leaders to confront not just AI but the deeper crises of our time such as climate change, inequality, and threats to democracy.

Once again, this honesty starts with leadership. The best deans are not just technology adopters; they are truth-tellers, capable of confronting denial within their own ranks and leading with both clarity and compassion.

FROM POLICING TO EMPOWERING: RETHINKING AI & ASSESSMENT

For many faculty, AI evokes fear, especially around academic integrity. Yet the panel’s consensus was clear: treating AI as a threat misses the point. “Banning AI is like banning calculators or the internet,” one professor said. “That argument is gone.”

Instead, the conversation turned to authentic assessment, designing assignments where AI use is not cheating but expected. One faculty member described telling his MBA students: “Use AI however you like. Forget what you’ve been told.” The result was deeper learning, higher engagement, and more relevant preparation for the workplace.

Leadership again plays a pivotal role here. It takes courage to replace a compliance-driven culture with one built on trust. Deans who empower experimentation, rather than policing it, help their schools move from anxiety to agency.

BRINGING FACULTY ON THE JOURNEY

Faculty innovation cannot be mandated; it must be supported. One school shared a compelling example: an “AI Stress Test” in which professors workshop their own courses to identify where AI could enhance or undermine learning. This process creates a safe-to-fail environment for discovery.

For such initiatives to thrive, leaders must make structural investments, from pedagogical innovation teams to dedicated funds and workload models that allocate time for exploration. The most successful schools are those where deans themselves participate in these exercises, signaling that experimentation is not optional; it is cultural.

INCLUSION IN THE AI ERA

The conversation also turned to inclusion. As one panelist put it, “We have to start with humility. Educational spaces are inherently privileged.”

Designing for inclusivity means consciously reducing barriers to participation and ensuring that new tools do not reinforce existing hierarchies. The goal is to build classrooms where all students, not just the most confident, can engage meaningfully.

Creating such spaces requires psychological safety at the institutional level. And that safety, panelists agreed, begins with leadership that values empathy as much as expertise.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS THE NEW CORE COMPETENCY

What struck me most, both in the panel and in subsequent conversations with women leaders, was how essential it is for senior university leaders to lead by example. Deans, provosts, and executive teams must not only endorse innovation; they must personally engage with it. When leaders experiment with emerging technologies, they send a powerful signal that trying, failing, and learning are not career-limiting moves but cultural expectations.

This is where emotional intelligence becomes the defining skill of our time. Effective leaders must reality-check the hype around AI, manage the sense of being overwhelmed, and guide their teams with empathy and self-awareness. Managing human emotion, confidence, and culture is just as critical as managing the technology itself.

Business schools that build cultures of psychological safety, where innovation is encouraged and failure is seen as progress, will be the ones that truly thrive. The deans who succeed will be those who can combine AI literacy with emotional literacy, balancing strategic vision with compassion and technical fluency with trust.

Ultimately, while technical skills will determine who can keep up, emotional fluency will determine who can lead.

3 ACTIONS FOR B-SCHOOLS READY TO REBUILD

• Conduct an AI Stress Test: Enable faculty to test their courses against AI tools and redesign assessments in a supportive, non-judgmental environment.
• Invest in Learning Innovation Teams: Build dedicated pedagogical units that partner with faculty to explore, research, and implement new technologies.
• Redefine Authentic Assessment: Move from a policing mindset to one that treats AI as a legitimate, expected part of the learning process.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Rebuilding the business school for the AI age is not a technical project; it is a human one. It demands leaders who are both fearless and empathetic, strategic yet humble. As one panelist reflected, “We’ve somehow forgotten that we need to test and fail and test and fail all over again to deliver the best experience for our students.”

AI literacy will help universities survive the next decade. Emotional literacy will decide which ones truly lead it.

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Professor Sally Everett is Vice Dean, Education, Deputy Dean (interim), and Professor of Business Education at King’s Business School. Benjamin Stevenin is special adviser to Poets&Quants and former Director of Business School Solutions and Partnerships at Times Higher Education.

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