AI, Business, Education and the Future of Leadership

What does the rapid rise of artificial intelligence mean for businesses, educators, and the next generation of leaders? This was the focus of the inaugural Columbia India Hour, which brought together Costis Maglaras, Dean of Columbia Business School, and Pirojsha Godrej, Chairman Designate of Godrej Industries Group, for a wide-ranging conversation on AI, education, business, and the future of work.

Maglaras described the current AI moment as a genuine break from the past, comparing its potential impact to the invention of electricity. Unlike earlier technological shifts, AI capabilities are spreading at extraordinary speed: an innovation developed in San Francisco, he noted, could be in use at a Mumbai startup within 12 hours. Yet organizations will adapt more slowly. People and institutions need time to absorb change, meaning that even as AI capabilities improve exponentially, organizational transformation may unfold over five to ten years.

For India's established, family-led businesses, this transition could present an opportunity. Maglaras highlighted their financial strength and market access, ability to take a long-term view, and global reach as potential advantages over startups. But these advantages will matter only if companies are willing to reinvent their products, markets, and services, rather than simply use AI to make existing processes more efficient.

The conversation also explored how business education itself must change. At Columbia Business School, AI is being taught directly, examined through its impact on functions such as finance, marketing, investing, and energy, and incorporated into the learning experience itself. One example is an in-house AI tool that allows students to prepare for case discussions by engaging with an AI that challenges their thinking; faculty can then see a summary of the interaction before class.

This is also changing how learning is assessed. With traditional take-home examinations increasingly difficult to evaluate in an era of generative AI, Maglaras described using five- to seven-minute oral conversations to probe students' understanding through follow-up questions. He emphasized that he does not particularly mind if students use AI to learn, provided they can demonstrate genuine understanding. Hands-on exercises that test whether students can build and apply something are another part of the shift.

As AI takes on more technical and analytical work, Maglaras argued that distinctly human capabilities—critical thinking, judgment, collaboration, motivation, and the ability to understand and address people's anxieties during periods of change—will become increasingly important. He also suggested that children should use AI to expand and verify what they have learned, rather than as a shortcut around learning itself.

"Critical thinking, judgement... how you motivate people, how do you inspire people, how do you collaborate with others — not as a leader, but as a member of a team? How do you exercise judgement? How you as a leader understand the human condition, understand the fears, the anxiety that other people have, and you try to address them? I actually think that these skills for your CEOs... are the key skills."

The discussion ended on several important questions about the future. Maglaras stressed the need for genuine investment in reskilling, warning that helping an existing workforce adapt within a single generation is far harder than allowing successive generations to grow up with new technologies. He also pointed to the eventual impact of robotics on physical work and the risk of a widening gap between countries at the frontier of AI and those that are not.

For businesses, he identified enduring sources of advantage—including customer relationships and market access, proprietary data, deep expertise in specific applications, and capabilities connected to the physical world. Reliable infrastructure and energy, he noted, could also become important competitive differentiators. At the same time, he acknowledged an unresolved challenge: if AI removes many entry-level tasks, organizations may have to rethink the traditional apprenticeship ladder through which young professionals develop into future leaders.

The conversation offered a clear message: the AI transition is not simply about adopting a new technology. It is about rethinking how organizations change, how people learn, and what it means to lead in a rapidly evolving world. Columbia Business School's broader AI strategy similarly emphasizes integrating AI into education while developing the critical thinking and leadership capabilities needed to navigate an AI-driven economy.

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