Michigan’s Ross School of Business will offer an AI concentration in its MBA. Photo Credit: University of Michigan (Ross)
Artificial intelligence is becoming core to the MBA. The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is the latest to make that official, announcing this week a new AI concentration for Full-Time MBA students that blends technical understanding with business application and ethics.
“Many Michigan Ross courses have incorporated AI over the last several years,” said S. Sriram, associate dean for graduate programs and the Dwight F. Benton Professor of Marketing.
“Now that we have reached a critical mass of student interest matched with faculty expertise, we are excited to debut an AI concentration for our Full-Time MBA Program. Companies that hire our graduates have forecasted that AI tool application is becoming just as important as strategic thinking for business leaders.”
The concentration requires at least 12 credits of electives divided between “AI Fundamentals,” “AI and Business Models,” and “AI and Society.” Core offerings include AI for Business (TO 633), Customer-AI Value Creation (MKT 624), and Ethics for AI and Robotics (CSE 543). Students can also take courses from other Michigan units, including the School of Information and the College of Engineering, underscoring the interdisciplinary nature of the initiative.
According to the school, the concentration is open to current and future Full-Time MBA students and aims to ensure that graduates “acquire a well-rounded AI skill set and become invaluable decision-makers.”
The program also incorporates what Ross calls “vertical AI” courses — classes that apply artificial intelligence to specific industries and functional areas, such as Healthcare Innovation and Startups and Marketing Strategy for the Digital Age.
Ross’s move reflects a fast-accelerating trend among elite business schools. Earlier this year, The Wharton School unveiled a new MBA major and undergraduate concentration in Artificial Intelligence for Business, designed to combine machine learning, data science, and applied business judgment. The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia followed suit with a concentration in AI, Data Analytics, and Decision Sciences, offering more than two dozen related courses.
In April, Poets&Quants chronicled how schools like MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, and IESE in Europe are embedding AI deeply into their MBA curricula, often through dual-track programs that fuse analytics, ethics, and leadership. At Berkeley Haas, a new AI for Business certificate launched this fall includes cross-disciplinary input from data science, law, and organizational behavior, while Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business introduced a faculty-authored “AI Playbook” to guide professors in integrating generative AI into teaching and research.
