Lynn Gribble (UNSW Business School) and Danielle Logan-Fleming (Torrens University).
For the past three years, it seems that almost every conversation about education has either begun with, or ended in, a discussion about AI (Liu, 2025). Yet the more pressing challenge has been to examine what is actually happening in business (Bate, 2025). As business educators, we have rightly focused on what must change in our teaching and assessment (Dodd, 2024). The next step, however, is to look more deeply at how AI generally—and generative and agentic AI specifically—is being adopted and utilised in business practice (Harland, 2026).
Only then can we determine what needs to be integrated into our disciplinary teaching to ensure our graduates are ready to work and act in an AI-enabled world that is still unfolding and not yet fully understood (Selvaratnam & Venaruzzo, 2023).
Business has changed (Job Skills Australia, 2025a), and with it, entry-level roles (OECD, 2025). Popular commentary (World Economic Forum, 2023a)often suggests that such roles are disappearing. The data, however, indicates something more nuanced: it is not that there are fewer roles, but that what people do within those roles has shifted (Lodge et al., 2023). What we are seeing is task redistribution. When one task disappears, the critical question becomes: what new task has emerged?
University degrees have always aimed to develop more than job-ready skills (C. Logan-Fleming et al., 2025); they prepare graduates to think, analyse and adapt. Nonetheless, we must ensure that our students are ready to contribute meaningfully in a technology-enhanced workplace (Grant et al., 2025). Graduate programs offer structured rotations to identify a match between interests and skills, but only a small proportion of students access these pathways. For many others, entry-level roles (Job Skills Australia, 2025b)—HR administrator, assistant accountant, receptionist, general administrator—provide the first opportunity to ‘get a foot in the door’ (QILT, 2025).
These roles have traditionally offered rich opportunities for social learning: observing leadership, understanding organisational dynamics, learning how to communicate with clients, and developing professional judgement (OECD, 2025). Remote work has reduced some of these informal learning moments. Now, with AI embedded in many tasks, the nature of work has shifted again (World Economic Forum, 2023a).
Humans must add value where technology cannot (Chui et al., 2023). For graduates, the essential question is not whether AI is present, but how they can contribute alongside it. To do so, they must understand how technology in general—and AI in particular—is reshaping business models, decision-making and professional practice (World Economic Forum, 2023b). Our role, therefore, is twofold: to teach with technology and to teach about how technology is integrated within each discipline (UNESCO, 2023). From HR to accounting to economics, this requires collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and an integrated approach not previously considered.
From medicine to beauty, finance to education and the creative arts, no industry has been untouched (Chui et al., 2023). Some systems are proprietary; others are off-the-shelf tools embedded into everyday operations. Entry-level accounting and HR tasks now involve supervising, checking and ethically declaring AI-assisted outputs (Australian Government, 2025). Accuracy, critical oversight and professional voice become central capabilities (World Economic Forum, 2023a). The ability to understand and transparently disclose how AI has been used will increasingly define professional competence.
The challenge for business educators is to remain actively engaged in these conversations and to adapt quickly as the world of work evolves (AACSB, 2025). The Business Education SIG has been at the forefront of exploring these changes. Beyond AI, we have examined secure assessment at scale, the integration of regulatory frameworks in higher education, and the question of how to measure meaningful learning rather than defaulting to efficiency through traditional examinations (D. Logan-Fleming et al., 2025).
The role of the business educator continues to evolve. Engaging in these ongoing discussions can reinvigorate our practice and ensure we are preparing students to thrive in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.
References:
AACSB. (2025). 2025 State of Business Education Report.
Australian Government. (2025, December 1). Artificial intelligence impact assessment tool. Artificial Intelligence Impact Assessment Tool.
Bate, G. (2025, February 4). Exploring GenAI’s scope in business education: Text, images, and avatars [Video recording]. ASCILITE Business Ed SIG. https://youtu.be/u-m0-PWYEAE?si=2FERbET_zi8ss1qX
Chui, M., Hazan, E., Roberts, R., Singla, A., Smage, K., Sukharevsky, A., Yee, L., & Zemmel, R. (2023). Economic potential of generative AI | McKinsey. In McKinsey & Company.
Dodd, P. (2024, July). How is business education and assessment adapting to reflect real-world use of GenAI [Video recording]. ASCILITE Business Ed SIG. https://youtu.be/-Yv5NotFreI?si=0UY3-BItvnfdaNR1
Grant, A., Goodsite, F., & Parker, A. (2025, August 26). What If Your Recent Students Are Already Building the Future of AI? [Video recording]. ASCILITE Business Ed SIG. https://youtu.be/t7rTLFwLaqA?si=8K1W2GamEymuOFTn
Harland, N. (2026, February 11). How AI Is Evolving in Business Schools. AACSB Insights. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2026/02/how-ai-is-evolving-in-business-schools
Job Skills Australia. (2025a). Connecting for impact Aligning productivity, participation and skills Jobs and Skills Report 2025. https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/jobs-and-skills-report-2025
Job Skills Australia. (2025b). Occupation and Industry Profiles. Web Page. https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/data/occupation-and-industry-profiles
Liu, D. (2025, March 18). Program-Level Assessment Design and the Two-Lane Approach [Video recording]. ASCILITE Business Ed SIG. https://youtu.be/esnEair-RU0?si=ABnw1RI0elhiQCXC
Lodge, J. M., Howard, S., Mearman, M., & Dawsone, P. (2023). Assessment reform for the age of artificial intelligence. https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/resources/corporate-publications/assessment-reform-age-artificial-intelligence
Logan-Fleming, C., Chant, S., & Gribble, L. (2025, August 26). Responsible Business Education for all – it’s more than SDGs [Video recording]. ASCILITE Business Ed SIG. https://youtu.be/9ssLNKkXcWY?si=GuUnt0S4wIMeCitL
Logan-Fleming, D., Parrish, D., Liu, D., Strampel, K., Dollinger, M., & Lawson, R. (2025, October 29). Assurance of Learning in the Age of AI: Leading with Integrity and Innovation. [Video recording]. ASCILITELive! Webinar. https://youtu.be/1m4PpGkEqAA?si=Dw9yK6wbXEgJh7FU
OECD. (2025). Education at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/1c0d9c79-en
QILT. (2025). 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey: National Report. https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/graduate-outcomes-survey-(gos)#anchor-2
Selvaratnam, R., & Venaruzzo, L. (2023). Governance of artificial intelligence and data in Australasian higher education: A snapshot of policy and practice. ASCILITE Publications. https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2023.717
UNESCO. (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54675/EWZM9535
World Economic Forum. (2023a). Future of Jobs Report 2023: Insight Report. In World Economic Forum.
World Economic Forum. (2023b). Shaping the Future of Learning : The role of AI in Education 4.0 : Insight Report. https://www.Weforum.Org/Publications/the-Future-of-Jobs-Report-2023/.