Business Education Trends to Watch in the 2025-2026 School Year
Credit: NurPhoto / Getty Images- AI adoption will be the main theme for business education in the 2025-2026 school year.
- This comes alongside other related trends like upskilling for working professionals.
- Expect more AI-specific degrees and credentials from business schools.
- Also, expect a focus on specialized business master degrees over generalist offerings as schools look to engage new audiences.
Expect artificial intelligence (AI) to be the focal point of business education in the 2025-2026 school year.
A report from the Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable earlier this year found that AI was already widespread in business school curricula — a trend that experts expect will only continue.
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“Over the next decade, business school curricula will undergo a significant transformation, driven by technology, market demands, and changing student expectations,” the report reads.
“AI and data analytics will become core components of business education, both as subjects of study and as tools to enhance learning experiences.”
That prediction is already coming true as more business schools reimagine their curricula in the age of AI.
But the embrace of AI doesn’t just mean teaching the technology. It also means business schools are reaching out to nontraditional students like working professionals amid a global scramble to upskill in AI.
AI as Core Curriculum
AI is no longer just an optional elective. It’s at the core of business education.
The past year has seen the overwhelming embrace of AI in business education. That’s taken many forms, from The Wharton School’s major AI investments to Arizona State University’s launching of degrees fully dedicated to AI in business.
It’s also seen the reimagining of existing degrees, like in Villanova University’s recent decision to reshape its business analytics degree around AI.
Want to earn an AI degree? Find out more:
That doesn’t mean those programs are giving up on the human skills at the core of business education. The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found that core skills like strategy and decision-making will remain important even as employers embrace AI.
Business schools have moved to harmonize AI and the longstanding leadership and strategy focus of business education. Tulane University Dean Paulo Goes emphasized that balance in an interview with BestColleges earlier this year.
“When you teach entrepreneurship and innovation, that’s the perfect environment for creating this partnership between humans and AI,” Goes said.
“Every single step of that process, from ideation to moving something to the market, you can rely on that interaction.”
A business school launching AI instruction is no longer newsworthy. It’s widespread to the point of being an assumption.
What to watch: We’re keeping an eye on how students are responding to that new AI curriculum, particularly since our own research shows that AI adoption is widespread among students.
Want to share how your business school is teaching AI? Reach out to me at bleckrone@redventures.com.
Fast, Flexible Degrees for Working Professionals
Flexible online master of business administration (MBA) programs and other business degrees for working professionals have been on the rise for years, and AI is boosting that trend.
GMAC found in its 2025 Prospective Students Survey that older candidates tend to be most interested in AI.
Roughly 59% of prospective students 40 and older said in that survey that they want AI education. That figure was just 41% for candidates 22 and younger.
“This may be because older candidates have more work experience
without the presence of AI, and, therefore, are more concerned with formal education on how to integrate it into their skillset,” the report reads.
Learn more about flexible online business degrees here:
Business schools have consistently rolled out online degrees aimed at working professionals this year. Expect that trend to continue into 2025.
That trend is already well-established for online MBA programs, which have long included flexibility and asynchronous learning tailored to an audience of full-time professionals.
But business schools are now extending that focus on working professionals to more specialized degrees. Villanova, ASU, and other major business schools have made working professionals the target audience for their AI-focused degrees.
Many of those degrees come in a faster format than traditional master’s degrees.
The Villanova MSBAi, for instance, can be finished in just 16 months. Other master’s in accounting degrees, like the program offered at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, take just a year to finish.
And full-on degrees aren’t the only rising option for working professionals. Many business schools have also adopted short-term credentials in high-demand areas like AI and financial technology (fintech) that offer students a fast way to showcase those skills on their resume.
What to watch: Working students now have a host of degree and certificate options. We’ll be following enrollment trends closely to see whether working students actually embrace the degrees or instead opt for more short-term credentials on AI.
Specialized Degrees in Vogue
Another key finding from the GMAC’s most recent prospective students survey was the continued rise of specialized degrees.
That report found that the MBA fell from the main preference of 63% of prospective students in 2023 to 52% in 2024.
Specialized business master’s degrees on the other hand rose from being preferred by 31% of surveyed candidates to 39% during that same time frame.
Some of that change can be chalked up to a change in the GMAC’s methodology, but the findings were still notable for a major rise in new, specialized degree types.
“The largest increases were seen in the ‘other business master’s’ category, which is a catchall for the many newer, specialized graduate business programs that have been rolling out at business schools over the past several years,” the report reads.
Report after report has confirmed that trend as schools roll out degrees centered on fast-growing fields like AI and fintech.
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) also found a rapid rise in applications to business master’s programs over the past six years that was largely driven by specialized degrees.
What to watch: The MBA and business analytics degrees likely won’t be the last to get an AI spin. Expect more schools to put an AI emphasis at the core of their specialized degrees in areas like finance and accounting.
The Rise of the Master’s in Management
The master’s in management (MiM) is another business degree on the rise, but it doesn’t fit closely with any other offering from business schools.
It doesn’t usually dive deep in a specific discipline. Instead it focuses on giving students a broad overview of business fundamentals.
The key differentiator of an MiM from other business master’s degrees is its target audience. The degree generally focuses on young professionals who don’t have an undergraduate degree in business.
The Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business is one of the latest major business schools to add a flexible MiM degree, joining other major institutions like Kenan-Flagler and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
What to watch: Many MiM programs are held in person, but Carey’s new degree represents an expansion into the flexible education space. We’ll be watching to see if more schools follow suit.