New Delhi

Artificial intelligence (AI) could pose a major challenge to management education over the next two to three decades, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said, urging B-schools to prioritise teaching “judgement” as AI increasingly takes over routine and analytical tasks.

Addressing the 16th Indian Management Conclave (IMC 2026) in Noida, Nageswaran said the rise of AI presents an opportunity to reimagine management education, with institutions needing to look beyond simply adding AI courses to their curricula.

“Adding one AI elective will not be enough,” he stressed the need for teaching judgement.

“The manager's core tool is a clear and patient mind. That tool is under attack before the students even reach the campuses. So these are India's real challenges over the next 20 to 30 years,” he said.

He argued that while AI is increasingly capable of performing routine and codified tasks, it could also remove the entry-level work through which young professionals traditionally acquire experience and develop judgement.

“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. Think about what this means. 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 further stressed, “This is not a small problem for management education, it could be the whole problem.”

“The parts of management that AI cannot do are exactly the parts that were always the hardest to teach in a classroom.”

Against this backdrop, Nageswaran called on management institutions to prioritise judgement over technique as AI takes over more analytical tasks.

“First, teach judgement, not just technique,” he said adding, “If AI now does the analysis, the scarce skill is knowing which question to ask and whether to trust the answer that comes back. This is judgement. It is taught through cases.”

Nageswaran also flagged social media as another challenge for young people in India, pointing to its impact on attention and health.

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“That is one more force and this one is closer to home in India. Social media is doing something to our young people. It is fragmenting their attention. It is straining their mental and physical health. The ability to sit with the hard problem to read something long and difficult to think a man,” he said.