AIB bakes AI literacy into revamped Australian MBA

Australian Institute of Business has redesigned its MBA curriculum and assessments to make AI literacy and responsible use a core part of management education, drawing on its own research into the use of ChatGPT in higher education.

The Adelaide-based business school said it has changed how faculty teach, assess and support students across the MBA programme. It also introduced an elective focused on Artificial Intelligence for Business, with course content framed around leadership and governance issues as organisations increase their use of AI tools.

AIB positioned the changes alongside labour market data that it gathered from LinkedIn and SEEK. The institution said the analysis found 2,372 jobs across Australia that referenced "AI" in the job title or description. It described many of the positions as focusing on how companies define and govern AI use in products and processes.

Curriculum changes

AIB said its research into ChatGPT use in higher education identified gaps in skills development for responsible and ethical AI use. It said those findings shaped the MBA redesign and prompted the creation of the Artificial Intelligence for Business elective.

The elective is available to all MBA students, according to AIB. It covers the basics of AI and large language models, as well as identifying limitations of tools and approaches to responsible and ethical use.

AIB said the MBA programme now includes more work that requires personal judgement and real-world examples. It said this includes applying theory to a student's own workplace and explaining decision-making in a business situation. It also said the approach targets over-reliance on AI outputs.

"AI has changed our practices in both academics and the workplace," said AIB Associate Professor Sumesh Nair. "This requires new managerial mindsets with a strategic, and not purely technical, view of AI."

Assessment approach

AIB said it now places greater emphasis on rules and guidance for students when they use AI tools. It said students need to check and question AI outputs and verify information.

"Our research showed us that students need clear rules and support in learning how to use AI correctly," said Associate Professor Mulyadi Robin, AIB's Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning. "This is not just in how they're completing assigned work, but how to check and question AI output."

AIB also linked the curriculum update to employability. It said AI literacy forms part of graduate skills for a job market that is shifting as organisations adopt AI and automation. It pointed to the appearance of AI requirements across a wider range of leadership and management roles.

Jobs data

AIB's job listing analysis broke down AI-related roles by city. It reported 1,170 roles in Sydney, 622 in Melbourne and 244 in Brisbane. The organisation said the roles included titles such as 'AI Evangelist', 'AI Enablement Lead' and 'AI & Automation Consultant'.

The AIB team said some listings focused on leadership, definition and governance of AI use within organisations. It also said AI responsibilities increasingly sit within broader roles, rather than being restricted to specialist technical positions.

AIB cited SEEK figures from Sydney as an example of recent growth. It said the number of AI-related roles advertised on SEEK in Sydney was 651 in March 2025 and 909 in December 2025, which is a 40% increase. It also cited Brisbane figures, stating there were 151 AI-related jobs listed in July 2025 and 210 in December 2025, a rise of 39% over six months.

The institution said it used advanced search parameters on LinkedIn and SEEK with the keyword "AI" to identify listings where the term appeared in the title or job description. It said it captured job counts in late December 2025 and used the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, where available, to examine historical listings and assess trends.

AIB said the combination of its education research and job market scan reflects changing expectations for managers. It framed AI leadership as a core competency alongside traditional management disciplines, with a focus on decision-making and governance rather than tool-specific training.

"We strongly believe that our work has placed AIB as the national authority at the intersection of AI, business education and leadership development," said Robin.