MBA Predictions 2024

Explore 2024 MBA predictions: AI's impact on admissions & ethics, application trends, class profile shifts, and evolving program formats. Stay ahead in the dynamic MBA landscape.

MBA Predictions for 2024

As the new year begins, we take a look at what 2024 will bring for the world of MBA programs. Economic and geopolitical factors, combined with technological advancements, will impact business schools, the admissions landscape, and job prospects for MBA graduates.

In a recent Business Casual Podcast conversation with John A. Byrne and Maria Wich-Vila of Poets&Quants , I peered into the crystal ball to see what the coming year holds for the MBA world. Here are some of our predictions for 2024.

The Influence of AI Will Increase

Artificial intelligence will continue to revolutionize higher education, including admissions, in the coming years. Exactly how this will play out in the long term is uncertain.

Business school applicants and their recommenders quickly leveraged the speed and power of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for essay and recommendation letter writing. While these tools can do many things well, crafting such personal, detailed, and exemplary content is not their strength. Too often, it is obvious that the results were machine-written, and this does not impress admissions committees.

We anticipate that video essays or interview components will become more prevalent, as AI-assisted videos are harder to manipulate than written content. One area where B-schools might use AI is in automating the reading of applications and sorting them by specific criteria.

In response to the concerns raised by AI, ethics might become a stronger focus in the MBA curriculum. Teaching could be adapted to cover ethical concerns, intellectual property, and data privacy related to AI use – all topics that MBA students will face in their roles as managers and leaders.