Over the next three years, 92% of companies plan to increase investments in artificial intelligence, according to McKinsey. But only 1% of business leaders say their organisations are “mature” in AI deployment — meaning AI is deeply embedded in workflows and actually driving measurable outcomes.
The most agile business schools are responding fast to prepare execs to join the company of the 1%. They are bringing traditional MBAs into 2025, offering tech-savvy programmes that focus on leadership, spreadsheets, and strategy just as much as they dial in on data, analytics, and innovation. They turn students into leaders who can navigate the AI arms race and inspire teams to innovate.
The following US universities offer master’s degrees designed for the AI-powered economy:
Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz School of Business accelerates your journey of personal and professional leadership. Source: Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Whether the Chaifetz aiMBA™ or one of its four specialised master’s programmes (Chaifetz aiMS Finance™, Chaifetz aiMS Supply Chain Management™, Chaifetz aiMS Applied Financial Economics™, Chaifetz aiMasters in Accounting™), these one-year degree programmes produce the T-shaped professionals that firms demand.
As one of the first business schools in the Western United States, Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz School of Business is one step ahead in embracing innovative approaches to the journey of business education. Since its founding in 1910, the school has been home to engaged students, leading faculty and nationally ranked programmes where personal and professional leadership formation has been centre stage. Today, it is also where AI, business and leadership converge to accelerate your journey and career.
Chaifetz has created an AI enterprise platform designed to accelerate and deepen learning. This novel platform delivers comprehensive feedback on the spot, helps faculty trace student critical thinking, and then gives student-specific mentoring to help every student achieve their goals. This focus on critical thinking runs through every master’s programme.
Chaifetz master’s programmes are designed to develop T-shaped professionals — those who have deep functional expertise while simultaneously forming humanistic leadership skills. For example, whichever master’s programme you pursue, you can support your journey with the school’s Dignity-Based Leadership curricular and co-curricular training. Along with insights on how to foster dignity and belonging in every meeting, you will learn how to lead people and projects. A specially designed AI agent can also be invited to your student meetings to accelerate the mastering of these humanistic capabilities that are needed to make a positive impact on the world. This human-centered leadership programme complements technical depth — completing the profile of a true T-shaped Chaifetz-educated professional.
At Carroll School of Management, you will learn more than just business. Source: Boston College
Boston College
The first institution of higher education to operate in Beantown, Boston College seeks to be the national leader in the liberal arts. Its Carroll School of Management is just as prolific, ranking among the world’s leading business schools for its rigorous and transformative academics that integrate the study of management with the liberal arts, while developing the skills of critical thinking and fostering ethical leadership.
Take the Full-Time MBA, for example. Here, you will hone your business skills while also gaining deeper insights into the inner workings of complex organisations. Faculty members are world-class and have mentored over 212,000 students to success. Studying here means learning by doing through a range of experiences, from helping a consumer products company develop a strategic marketing plan to developing a business launch plan for a Catholic day school café.
The STEM-designated MBA gives you all of the above – with a quantitative focus. It covers the application of statistical modelling, data warehousing, data mining, programming, forecasting, and operations research techniques in the context of the business world. International full-time MBA graduates on an F-1 visa can apply for an additional 24 months of training in their field of study (called Optional Practical Training or OPT) beyond the standard 12 months.
Whichever master’s programme you pursue, you will find your place in society and make a difference. With aspects of liberal arts being infused into the curriculum, an education here fosters intellectual inquiry, critical thinking, ethical leadership, effective communication, and a global perspective.
The Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Business explores AI’s work impact, governance, and balancing interests. Source: University of Maryland, Smith School of Business.
The University of Maryland
The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business never stops moving “fearlessly forward.” Always staying ahead of emerging technologies as they pertain to business, it has incorporated AI into its teaching, research, and the practice of business. Taking place at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Business, a robust research enterprise delves into AI’s work impact, governance, and balancing interests. What they learn guides industry and government in the responsible and effective use of these new tools.
In the classroom, highly ranked faculty members teach bias navigation, data tracking, and effective human-AI job design. It’s a level of understanding of AI that most business schools currently aren’t equipped to provide, but the Smith School’s 10 STEM-designated master’s degree programmes are. Accounting, Finance, Marketing Analytics, Supply Chain Management, Quantitative Finance, Information Systems, Business Analytics, and Management Studies are offered as both in-person and online courses.
Whichever programme you choose, Smith’s faculty – which includes 21 professors ranked among the top 2% most-cited scholars worldwide by Elsevier – will equip you with the competence and confidence to meet the rising tide of AI in various business applications. For example, the MS in Business Analytics and MS in Information Systems include courses such as “Data Mining and Predictive Analytics” and “Enterprise Cloud Computing and Big Data.”
If these programmes set you up to become a leader in the new future of business, then Smith’s location in a verdant, centrally located Washington, D.C., suburb lets you connect to a gateway of unparalleled professional opportunity. The nearby Tech Corridor of Northern Virginia, the myriad supply chain and enterprise opportunities at the Port of Baltimore, and the thriving local finance industry all provide attractive career options for Smith graduates. Where better to gain an inspired business education?
*Some of the institutions featured in this article are commercial partners of Study International
