The Story Behind Chicago Booth’s & MasterClass’ New $2,500 ‘Business School,’ Built With OpenAI

Chicago Booth is expanding its reach beyond traditional executive classrooms – and even beyond the MBA.

The school is helping develop MasterClass Executive, a $2,500 AI-driven certificate program built with MasterClass and OpenAI, while also bringing The Leadership Collective, a year-long development experience for rising C-suite leaders, under its Executive Education umbrella.

Both initiatives draw on Booth faculty and ideas but target executives with very different time commitments and learning formats.

“We’ve seen how AI is changing the workplace – including the increase in employer demand for staff with stronger AI skills and its impact on starting salaries, and individuals reevaluating ROIs,” Dean Madhav Rajan tells Poets&Quants. “The graduate management education industry must recognize these shifts and support students to adapt successfully and lead in new working environments.”

BOOTH HELPED SHAPE MASTERCLASS EXECUTIVE

Chicago Booth faculty worked with MasterClass to help design the academic framework behind the new program.

The program also features high-profile instructors including investor Mark Cuban, hedge fund founder Ray Dalio, and other prominent entrepreneurs, executives, and academics.

“Chicago Booth is proud to contribute our academic expertise and thought leadership to MasterClass Executive, ensuring that the content meets Booth’s rigorous standards for quality, insight, and evidence-based practice,” Rajan says. “The program is very much aligned with our identity as a premier global business school. MasterClass and Booth collaborated on an overall curriculum framework for this program, with Booth lending the depth of our faculty expertise, including two Nobel laureates, to bring that framework to life.”

The program is designed to deliver a business-school-style learning experience at a far lower cost than a traditional degree.

“The low cost of the program and the business school-like experience we offer are intentional efforts to make Booth’s ideas and faculty accessible to a broader audience, at a wider range of career stages, than our degree programs may serve,” Rajan says.

“MasterClass Executive is a non-degree program culminating in a certificate of completion rather than an MBA or other degree. It is designed to be completed in less than four months, and it is primarily online, which not only lowers the time and financial commitment for participants but also makes the program accessible to learners around the world.”

Rajan emphasized that the program is meant to complement Booth’s traditional MBA programs rather than compete with them.

“Chicago Booth’s MBA programs deliver an immersive, in-person education, along with extensive career and co-curricular resources, and a lifelong alumni network,” he says. “We see MasterClass Executive as complementary to our degree offerings. Booth’s mission is to create knowledge with enduring impact and to educate current and future leaders. By partnering with MasterClass on a high-quality, certificate-based program at a more accessible price point, we are able to extend the reach of Booth’s analytical approach to leadership and management, while preserving the distinct value and depth of our traditional degree programs.”

WHAT ‘AI-NATIVE’ LEARNING MEANS

The MasterClass program is built around what its creators describe as an “AI-native” learning system.

“At Chicago Booth, we believe the most effective learning is rigorous, evidence-based, and deeply personalized – and that’s precisely what drew us to this partnership,” Rajan says. “‘AI-native’ means that AI is embedded in the architecture of how participants learn through MasterClass Executive; the technology is not simply layered on top of a conventional curriculum.”

“In practice, the AI-native design means the program adapts in real time to each participant’s pace, role, and performance. This is accomplished through a personal AI tutor. In addition, the AI Labs, developed in collaboration with OpenAI, will enable learners to apply AI skills to real business challenges, gaining a portfolio of work that employers value.”

WHY BOOTH CHOSE MASTERCLASS

Rajan says MasterClass’ global learning platform made it a natural partner.

“MasterClass has spent more than a decade building a distinctive, high-quality platform that brings leading experts to a global audience, and that track record was an important factor in our decision to partner,” he says. “We knew we could rely on MasterClass’ strengths in production, technology, and distribution so that Booth could concentrate on what we do best: delivering evidence-based business education and showcasing our faculty’s ideas to new learners around the world.”

There is also a personal connection behind the collaboration.

“MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier is a former student of mine from my Managerial Accounting MBA course at Stanford,” Rajan says. “That created a foundation of trust and mutual respect, and it opened the door to a conversation about how we could combine MasterClass’ reach with Booth’s academic excellence in a way that would be genuinely impactful.”

“Protecting Booth’s academic standards and brand has been central to the design of MasterClass Executive from the outset,” he adds. “I serve as the Chicago Booth faculty director for this program, and our faculty are deeply involved in shaping the academic experience and ensuring that the content reflects Booth’s rigor, research-based insights, and commitment to real-world relevance.”

THE LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE

While MasterClass Executive focuses on digital learning, Booth’s Executive Education division is also expanding in-person leadership development through The Leadership Collective.

Founded by Booth faculty member and leadership advisor John Philbin, the program is designed as a year-long experience for current and rising C-suite executives.

Participants attend four in-person sessions with Booth faculty covering topics such as strategy, transformation, board governance, and organizational culture. Current and former CEOs also lead discussions about the realities of leading large organizations.

Between sessions, executives work in structured peer-coaching groups, receive 360-degree leadership feedback, and develop a personalized leadership plan.

Executives in the first three cohorts have come from companies including Aon, Reebok, EPIC, Option Care Health, SP+, and HCSC Blue Cross Blue Shield.

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