Microsoft shares rose 12.4% last week on word of the release of Copilot, a generative artificial intelligence tool to be integrated into its Office suite. That's huge news from the tech giant because it hands AI to the masses via highly familiar, everyday interfaces such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Copilot will swiftly bring significant efficiencies and improvements to common tasks including email, analyses, business cases, presentations and performance reviews. With streamlined workflows and automated administrative functions, companies will be challenged to rethink business models, talent needs and resource usage. Very quickly, it will spur creativity, shorten work timelines and improve results.

The new centre shall undertake leading-edge research in data science and Artificial Intelligence that will support businesses, governance, and policymaking, the top B-School said. "It aims to forge…collaborative relationships between scholars and practitioners in data-intensive organisations, besides undertaking case-based research to understand the current industry practice and develop case studies for classroom teaching," the business school said. Announcing the launch of the centre, Errol D'Souza, director, IIM A, said, "Data Science and Artificial Intelligence are increasingly impacting businesses across the world. AI has become an inevitable part of our lives. To harness the power of these advanced technologies for augmenting businesses, the need of the hour is to bring together different stakeholders onto the same platform, conduct intensive research to identify challenges, determine potential and provide impactful insights".

There is no doubt that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are the two hot buzzwords right now. Examples of how AI and ML based disruptive practices are replacing traditional businesses on one hand while creating new business opportunities, on the other hand, are many. In a nutshell, AI is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a'smart' way while ML prescribes the set of such'smart' rules that the computer figures itself out. It is no exaggeration to say the current and the future belongs to AI and ML. It is estimated that in USA, there are more than 10,000 positions available at top employers across the country and additionally, the country is estimated to have 2, 50,000 open data science jobs by 2024.

The business world is changing, there's no doubt about it. And with that, so is business education. With globalization, technological advancements and demographic changes, the future of business will look vastly different than it does today. Margaret Andrews, a contributor at Inside Higher Ed, recently discussed how business schools can adapt to this change and best prepare students for the future of business. Creativity will become one of the top three skills workers will need to succeed, according to the World Economic Forum's report, "The Future of Jobs," which analyzes the employment, skills and workforce strategy for the future.