IESE Business School Launches Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Management Initiative

  • IESE launches multidisciplinary project to shape managers in ethical use of AI

February 17, 2020. IESE Business School has launched a new Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Management Initiative, a multidisciplinary project that will look at how artificial intelligence is impacting management, and prepare executives to put Al to use in their companies in an ethical and socially responsible way.

Artificial intelligence, like electricity a century ago, is a general purpose technology that will touch every sphere of economic activity. That places new demands on managers to adapt to the changing competitive landscape, to transform their organizations, and to ensure that employees – and themselves — have the skills required. IESE’s new Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Management Initiative will meet those needs for research and education efforts by:

  • Pursuing research that managers can put into action to lead their organizations and to strengthen the society in which they operate, through academic research, academic conferences and speaker series.
  • Educating current and future managers on how to navigate the changes, across IESE’s extensive range of programs, from short focused courses to longer programs such as the MBA and Executive MBA.
  • Engaging the broader business, academic and policymaking communities to promote the ethical use of technology and sense of responsibility towards those affected by the changes, through articles, workshops and outreach programs. 

“AI is as much a management challenge as it is a technological challenge,” said Dean Franz Heukamp. “With this initiative we want to help current and future managers, as well as policy makers, face the challenges AI presents, enabling them to shape the ways AI is used and ensure that it’s a force for good in society.”

The initiative, led by Professor Sampsa Samila, will bring together the work of IESE professors across a range of departments. The initiative’s current research areas include the use of AI in companies, the impact of industrial automation, and changing skill demands in the labor market. IESE also now offers the program Artificial Intelligence for Executives and students in many of the school’s programs can opt to take courses related to AI.