Teach judgement over technique to survive AI wave: CEA Nageswaran urges B-schools

Artificial intelligence (AI) could pose a existential challenge to management education over the next two to three decades by eliminating the entry-level roles that traditionally serve as training grounds for young professionals, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran warned.

Speaking at the 16th Indian Management Conclave in Noida, Nageswaran outlined how automation threatens the long-standing apprenticeship model.

"The trouble is AI now precisely does this junior work. The bottom rungs of the ladder are being sawn off. The routine tasks that once taught the young their trade are the first to be automated," Nageswaran said. "For a century, we learn judgement on the job, slowly through apprenticeship... and if AI removes the apprenticeship, where will the next generation of judgement be?"

He argued that adding a single elective on technology to business school curricula will be insufficient. Instead, institutions must pivot toward teaching critical thinking, discernment, and problem framing.

"The manager's core tool is a clear and patient mind. That tool is under attack before the students even reach the campuses," Nageswaran remarked, also pointing to the attention-fragmenting impacts of social media on young minds. "First, teach judgement, not just technique. If AI now does the analysis, the scarce skill is knowing which question to ask and whether to trust the answer that comes back".

The CEA's warnings on education align with his broader assessment of how artificial intelligence is disrupting global employment. Unlike previous automation cycles that focused primarily on repetitive manual labor, AI simultaneously targets cognitive and skill-based professions across IT services, analysis, and research.

Nageswaran noted that the era dominated by conventional software engineering and standard MBA degrees is giving way to trade skills, caregiving, and human-centric professions where physical presence and personal accountability remain indispensable.

Despite these disruptions, Nageswaran urged policymakers, educators, and enterprise leaders to treat artificial intelligence as a instrument for augmentation rather than an inevitable threat. Highlighting India's position host to nearly half the world's Global Capability Centers (GCCs), he emphasised that well-managed institutions use automation to raise the intrinsic value of human labor.

"A country that treats a powerful technology as fate will end up being shaped by it. A country that treats AI as a tool will shape it instead," Nageswaran stated. "Our goal should never be to make our people work like machines. Our goal should be to use machines so that our people are freed to do more of what only people can do — to reason, to decide, to take responsibility, and to exercise wisdom".