AI Powered Learner
On June 29, I had the opportunity to speak with the incoming MBA batch at NMIMS Mumbai during the launch of NMIMS Horizon in partnership with Coursera.
It was a good moment to speak to students who are just starting their MBA journey. They are entering a program that will shape how they think, solve problems, work with others, and prepare for the next phase of their careers. At the same time, they'll be entering a workplace that is changing faster than most of us have seen before.
The wanted to leave them with a simple point. Do not start by trying to become an AI expert. Start by becoming an AI-powered learner.
That distinction matters. An AI expert needs depth in models, systems, tools, infrastructure, and implementation. That is important work, but it is not where every student needs to begin. An AI powered learner is someone who knows how to learn faster, ask better questions, use the right resources at the right time, and keep adapting as the world changes.
That is a much more practical starting point.
The telephone and cars took decades to reach mass adoption. ChatGPT reached 100 million users in just two months. That is not just an interesting technology statistic. It tells us something important about the world students are preparing for. New tools and new ways of working will reach them faster than ever before.
The World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of key skills will change in the next five years. By 2030, 40% of core job skills are expected to shift. Employers are increasingly looking at micro-credentials as part of the hiring signal, and job postings mentioning GenAI skills grew 4x in 2024.
For MBA students, this is not abstract. Whether they go into consulting, finance, marketing, operations, product, HR, analytics, entrepreneurship, or roles that do not exist yet, AI will be part of their working environment. It may not replace everything they do, but it will change what good work looks like.
When everyone has access to similar tools, the advantage will not come from simply knowing which button to click. The advantage will come from judgment. Can you frame the problem well? Can you ask sharper questions? Can you connect data, customer context, business goals, domain knowledge and execution? Can you communicate clearly? Can you move from idea to action?
That is why learning how to learn is not a soft skill anymore. It is a career skill.
The practical advice I shared with students was intentionally simple. Start small and start today.
None of this needs to be dramatic. Capability is built through repetition. A student who uses AI once as a shortcut may not learn much. A student who uses it regularly to question, revise, practice, test understanding, and improve their work will build a very different kind of confidence.
That is also where platforms like Coursera can be powerful. Access to high-quality content matters, but access alone is not the outcome. The outcome comes from how students use that access. Do they go deeper? Do they practice? Do they build proof of skill? Do they use tools like Coach, Dialogues, and Role Plays to make learning more active and applied?
This is the opportunity with NMIMS Horizon. It is not just about adding more online courses to an MBA program. It is about helping students build a more adaptive learning rhythm while they are still in the classroom, so they are better prepared when they enter the workplace.
What I enjoyed about the session was the timing. These students are at the beginning of their MBA journey. They do not need to have every answer today. In fact, they should not expect to. But they do need to build the habit of staying curious, experimenting with new tools, and using learning as a way to stay ready.
The future of work will keep changing. The specific tools will change. Markets will change. Roles will change. The students who build the discipline to keep learning will always have a way forward.
That was the core message I wanted to share at NMIMS: do not just watch this change from the outside. Join it. Start small. Start today.
