HEC Paris Revamps Its MBA To Meet The Tech & Sustainability Moment

When Brad Harris talks about change, he means it in structural – and therefore long-lasting – terms. 

The dean of MBA programs at HEC Paris says the school’s just-completed curriculum overhaul, its most comprehensive in years, wasn’t just about adding a few flashy courses on AI or sustainability. It was about rebuilding the framework itself so the MBA can evolve faster as the business world keeps shifting.

“It took us a little over a year to conceptualize and put it into place,” Harris says. “Most of that time wasn’t spent talking about what content we wanted to display. It was, ‘How do we design an architecture that allows us to do what we want now, but also be more agile?’ Because I’m certain tech and AI aren’t the last things that will require us to change.”

BUILDING A FLEXIBLE FRAMEWORK FOR A NEW ERA

Harris laughs recalling the many lunches and coffee meetings required to move people who had been teaching the same things in the same format for a century. “It took a lot of lunches and a lot of coffee meetings to move people who have been teaching the same thing in the same format for a hundred years,” he tells Poets&Quants. “But times are changing, and we have to change with them.”

The new architecture, he explains, unlocks a far more customizable second phase of the MBA. HEC continues to offer its signature specializations in Strategic Management, Finance, Marketing, Management and Organizations, and Entrepreneurship, but students can now layer transversal concentrations in Tech and AI or Sustainability on top of those functional tracks. These run in parallel rather than replacing the deeper disciplinary training, allowing students to build both classic managerial fluency and a future-forward edge. 

As Harris puts it, the goal is for graduates to say they are experts in their chosen field who also hold meaningful credentials in areas that increasingly define global business.

AI EMBEDDED THROUGHOUT THE MBA

That dual positioning is supported by deeper and more deliberate integration of AI across the curriculum. AI now appears not only in electives but throughout the core, in conceptual discussions and in hands-on experimentation. One of the clearest examples is a new entrepreneurial sequence in which students work alongside a humanoid AI agent to test and validate startup ideas, comparing the strengths and shortcomings of AI-only versus human-only innovation. The exercise forces students to confront AI’s real capabilities, its limitations, and the judgment required to use it wisely.

Harris says this kind of immersion responds to a genuine shift in the market. “We are doubling down on tech and AI, and that is sincere and justifiable,” he says. “But your educational experience here is still going to be a human one. You cannot just sit in your office coding all day. You have to get in here and have some human connection.”

That emphasis on the human experience also reflects HEC’s approach to coaching and personal development. Harris points to the MBA’s one-on-one coaching structure and the school’s traditional campus environment, which brings together students from around the world. “In the age of AI, you also have to figure out how to be human,” he says.

A REVAMPED CORE AND AN EXPANDED TECH TOOLKIT

To support this shift, HEC rebuilt several foundational courses. Data Science Camp was redesigned to include AI programming and practical skill-building, while Statistical Foundations for Business now makes greater use of data and AI tools. The HEC Colloquium, focused on innovation, technology, and impact, brings global business leaders to campus early in the program to expose students to emerging ideas at the moment they are forming their professional identities.

Beyond the core, the school has rolled out a range of new electives and concentration courses that widen the available toolkit. Students can now study user-centric AI and technology design, generative AI for business, deep-tech commercialization, legal aspects of innovation protection, and the regulatory frameworks that govern emerging technologies. The program also incorporates a deep-tech stream of the Creative Destruction Lab, giving students firsthand experience evaluating and supporting early-stage scientific ventures.

RESPONSIBLE AI & THE ETHICS IMPERATIVE

For Harris, the expansion of AI education demands an equally strong expansion of ethics training. “In every core class that touches on tech or AI, and even in the deep-dive courses, we make sure students are exposed to ethics content,” he says. “The big issue is accountability. Who is responsible for the outputs and actions that come from AI?”

To bring those questions to life, the school has introduced intensive modules that place ethical reasoning at the center of technological decision-making. From Algorithms to Ethics: Managing AI Responsibly asks students to wrestle with issues such as bias, transparency, and organizational duty, while Leading with AI: Generating Value through Systems Leadership challenges them to think about influence, stewardship, and the human consequences of technological change. Harris frames this as essential to HEC’s mission.

“Our tagline internally is that we develop leaders with the character, competence, and courage to change the world,” he says. “If you are using AI or working at an AI company, you should know what is going on, and you should be accountable for what your company or your code produces.”

A DRAMATIC EXPANSION IN STUDENT ACCESS

One of the clearest outcomes of the new architecture is that far more students are now receiving future-focused content. Under the previous structure, only a small share of the cohort could go deep on tech, AI, or sustainability. Harris notes that in the September intake of 173 students, roughly 150 will receive at least a dozen hours of content in one of the new transversal areas. “That is a huge leap,” he says. “More students are getting more of this content.”

Now two and a half years into his role, Harris sees the revamp as a long-term investment in leadership capacity. When asked how HEC graduates might be defined five years from now, he hopes they will blend technological fluency with distinctly human strengths. “My big hope is that we are producing leaders who are fluent enough in current technology to contribute right away,” he says. “But more importantly, that they leave with adaptability, critical thinking, and empathy so they can survive and contribute as leaders in the long term.”

That blend, he believes, is what will distinguish HEC Paris in a fiercely competitive global market. “We want employers to say HEC graduates get it,” he says. “They are future-ready, but they have not lost their humanity.”

DON’T MISS MEET THE HEC PARIS MBA CLASS OF 2026 and AN AMERICAN IN (HEC) PARIS: POETS&QUANTS’ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BRAD HARRIS, DEAN OF MBA PROGRAMS

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