VIEW FROM THE TOP
ADOPTING THE AI IMPERATIVE
As employees are increasingly required to know how best to share their workload with AI copilots, AMBA & BGA CEO Andrew Main Wilson outlines the key attributes and personality traits that employers now deem essential when recruiting MBA graduates
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• Sound judgement: knowing when to trust AI output • Adaptable personality: the flexibility to embrace continuous learning and being comfortable with frequent reinvention In addition, employers believe your graduates need three particular personality traits: namely, cognitive flexibility to adapt quickly to AI’s evolving capabilities; and strong emotional intelligence to make decisions and judgements on the data created by AI. Then there is intense curiosity, which is needed to openly embrace experimentation and continuous learning as the technology evolves from one month to the next, at an incredibly fast pace. These three traits are not new; they are centuries- old talents that need to be fine-tuned at business school – and which are at last being recognised as core capabilities. Business schools have always been at the forefront of evolving and teaching new leadership skills. This has arguably never been more important in this AI era of lightning-fast evolution.
t is hardly surprising that artificial intelligence and those new leadership skills required in the era of AI have featured so prominently as conference topics at many of our key events this year.
still lies with staff because while AI generates the data, humans must remain in charge, analysing and deciding the outcomes. These ‘frontier professionals’ remain responsible for both critical thinking and full control of AI output. Effectively, the technology is treated as the starting point of a project, not the final answer. AI-generated data now becomes a key strategic asset, with employees ensuring data is up to date and reliable in terms of quality and available only to appropriate colleagues in terms of accessibility. This new age requires an educational philosophy of continuous learning – reinventing processes as roles and workflows evolve. Employers are now, therefore looking for four key AI-related attributes when recruiting MBA graduates: • AI fluency: using artificial intelligence to maximum effect but not requiring coding expertise • Systems connectivity: the ability to see an entire process through from start to finish
I was particularly impressed with a presentation delivered at our Latin America Deans & Directors conference, held in Peru this autumn, and given by Mario Rodriguez Rossi, the general manager of Microsoft in that country. He elaborated on the issue of how work itself should be designed in the AI era, along with which skills employers are consequently looking for in MBA graduates. Every employee should now have an AI copilot to help them work more productively – effectively a human with an AI assistant. AI copilots join teams as digital colleagues, clearly directed to achieve specific tasks under human direction, forming part of each team to amplify workload capability and capacity. Crucially the decision-making power
46 Ambition • ISSUE 5 • 2026
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