Inside a New AI-Focused Online Business Analytics Program

AI is reshaping the business analytics field, and a major university is overhauling its online business analytics degree to meet that change.

Villanova University’s School of Business is adding an artificial intelligence (AI) emphasis to its master of science in business analytics degree. The new MSBAi program infuses AI throughout its coursework rather than as an elective or concentration.

It’s a major expansion of AI teaching that’s been going on for years at Villanova, Nathan Coates, assistant professor and MSBAi faculty director, told BestColleges.

“We’d always been in this space, and so we wanted to expand that,” Coates said.

It’s also the latest example of a business school infusing AI throughout a degree’s curriculum as business education reckons with how to meet demand for expertise in the fast-evolving tech.

A report published earlier this year by the Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable found that AI is now widely incorporated into business school courses.

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and New York University’s Stern School of Business have announced overhauled analytics programs with a focus on AI. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has announced major investments in AI research. The Kogod School of Business at American University recently revealed plans to embed AI across its curriculum.

Other institutions, such as Arizona State University, are rolling out entirely new offerings in response to the shifting paradigm, such as a master of science in AI in business.

The Villanova MSBAi curriculum comprises 10 courses totaling 30 credits, each of which incorporates some aspect of artificial intelligence. Course topics range from AI-assisted coding and data mining to the use of AI in business intelligence and decision-making.

The approach represents a shift from the traditional business analytics degree, which often emphasizes rigid technical instruction. Coates said the program reflects how generative AI is changing the skills students need to succeed.

“You can be an effective programmer now without learning all of the details and functions and syntax of a programming language because the generative AI is doing most of the heavy lifting,” Coates said.

That doesn’t mean students avoid technical fundamentals. Rather, AI tools are woven into the learning process.

For example, students still learn how to perform machine learning tasks manually — but they also use AI to assist with identifying data anomalies and uncovering hidden dynamics in complex datasets.

“We are teaching students not only all the techniques for doing machine learning manually but also bringing in AI to do things like spot issues with data or to help uncover dynamics in the data,” Coates said.

The degree also emphasizes how to adapt to new tools in a fast-changing business environment.

“What we’re teaching you now is the current state of the art, but you have to keep yourself up with the state of the art,” Coates said.

The dual focus on both technical proficiency and the human skills core to business leadership has emerged as a dominant theme in graduate business education over the past year.

Villanova’s MSBAi reflects broader trends in business education beyond AI.

It’s an online degree with built-in flexibility for working professionals, and it comes in an accelerated 16-month format.

Online, accelerated degrees for working professionals are popping up in every corner of business education as schools look to make their degrees stand out in an increasingly crowded market.

The majority of students in the program are working professionals, Coates said. The degree includes a weekly synchronous class, asynchronous coursework, and group work to boost networking.

Working professionals are a key audience for online business degree programs. The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, for example, recently launched four new online degrees tailored to working professionals. That includes a master’s degree in AI.

Those new degrees are the result of high demand: The consulting firm CarringtonCrisp previously found that working professionals are interested in specialized business master’s degrees as they look to upskill in AI.