MEMO FROM THE EDITOR
EDITORIAL Head of editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@amba-bga.com Content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@amba-bga.com Insight, content & PR manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@amba-bga.com
THE HUMAN TOUCH
In an AI world, empathy, judgement and critical thinking are the new hard skills in business education W hile attending our global conference in Madrid earlier this year, I also had the pleasure of chairing a roundtable debate that looked at the turbulence caused by next-gen technology. Here are my key takeaways in terms of the most pertinent learnings that arose across both events. Rethinking pedagogy – moving beyond traditional degrees: Speakers acknowledged a shift away from traditional, rigid academic formats towards flexible, process-oriented and stackable learning models. Sessions on assessment from IMD, the University of Edinburgh Business School and UCL championed evaluating the process of learning rather than single summative exams. In addition, presentations by Martin Bean and BoodleBox highlighted a macro shift toward skills-based hiring, stackable micro-credentials and positioning AI as a “co-worker”. Human-centric leadership in an AI world: Since generative AI and digital tools flatten technical execution, the real differentiator for business schools – and the leaders they train – is distinctly human, including skills such as judgement, adaptability and emotional intelligence. The keynote delivered by Ingka Group’s Belén Frau highlighted that technology amplifies cultural strengths or weaknesses, framing emotional intelligence, ethics and empathy as non-negotiable core skills. Similarly, sessions from Bloomberg and GMAC stressed that soft skills and prompt/critical-thinking mastery are becoming the ‘hard skills’ employers demand to “amplify leadership rather than replace it”. Purposeful partnerships trump transactional relationships: Static, isolated institutional models are no longer sufficient; survival and relevance depend on deep, strategic integration with industry, alumni and technology providers. In her conference session, Olta Muçaj from Ready Education demonstrated how alumni loyalty must be built “touchpoint by touchpoint” throughout the entire student lifecycle. Practical examples – such as IE Business School’s job-matching tool or UBI’s custom LLM partnership with Publicis Commerce – illustrated how co-creating with industry leads to tangible student success. Whether discussing AI governance, lifelong learning or institutional sustainability, the consensus among speakers and panellists is clear: technology should be used to free up cognitive capacity for empathy, strategic judgement and meaningful human connection.
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CORPORATE Director of business school engagement Debbie Kemp d.kemp@amba-bga.com
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Colette Doyle , Editor, Ambition THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS
HR & employer relations manager Aarti Bhasin Finance & commercial director Catherine Walker
Chief executive officer Andrew Main Wilson
Executive assistant to the CEO Amy De La Cour a.delacour@amba-bga.com ACCREDITATION ENQUIRIES accreditation@amba-bga.com
TIAGO BOTELHO
MACARENA CUENCA
RICHARD HODGETT
LUIGI GANGITANO
MARIAN GARCIA
LISA HEHENBERGER
DAN PEARSON
JOSÉ MARTÍNEZ-SIERRA
KÉVIN PASTIER
DONALD LANCASTER
PAUL JONES
RANIA SERHAL
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Ambition • ISSUE 4 • 2026 7
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