Postgraduate Course: Managing AI for Business (MBA) (CMSE11649)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the implications of AI for businesses, and for the managers that lead them. The course comprises four components: Planning for AI, Adopting AI, Using AI to support decision making, and the Societal impact of AI. By taking this course, students will gain a deep understanding of how to sense AI opportunities and develop strategies for exploiting them in their organizations, of the challenges involved in the implementation of AI in their organizations and of what responsible and ethical deployment of AI means in practice. Students will also learn how to evaluate different use cases for deploying AI within organization to support decision making and the consequences of AI use on the organizational actors involved, and how to explore the market and societal impact of AI, including the broader ethical implications of AI use. |
| Course description |
AI is transforming the way businesses operate and compete. Compared with other forms of digital technologies, current AI technologies have greater autonomy, deeper learning capacity and are more inscrutable. These unique characteristics create exceptional opportunities and challenge for businesses, and for the managers that lead them. Managing AI is unlike any kind of digital or information technology management of the past.
Building upon your knowledge of how digital technologies in general are transforming organisations which you have gained in your core courses, this course focuses specifically on the unique implications that AI has for business, and for the managers that seek to leverage it to create value for their organisations.
The course is divided into four parts:
Planning for AI: This section will examine the opportunities and broad strategies for organizations to exploit AI to create value.
Adopting AI: This section will examine the challenges and approaches to implement AI in organizations, including the operationalization of responsible AI principles in practice to ensure the moral and ethical deployment of AI.
Using AI to support decision making: This section will explore the use cases of AI in supporting decision making in organizations, including examining bias and challenges with AI-based decision making, and the consequences that AI use has on the employees within organizations.
The societal impact of AI: This section will examine the consequences of AI-based algorithms for consumers, market dynamics, and societal norms including a broader discussion of the ethical implications of AI use.
Business managers play a critical role in shaping the future of AI: it is managers who allocate resources to buying specific applications, oversee their implementation in their organisations and decide how to translate generic guidelines for responsible AI into practice. It is managers who use them in decision making and leverage them to target customers, monitor processes and inform decisions. And it is managers who decide what criteria to use to evaluate their success or otherwise. It is thus essential for any future business manager to understand the opportunities, challenges and implications of AI for their organization and beyond, and learn how it can be leveraged to create value responsibly.
By taking this course, you will gain the skills and knowledge to sense and seize AI opportunities, to plan the implementation of AI in your organizations, to assess the different use cases to deploy AI for decision making, and to evaluate the market and societal consequences of AI. By the end of the course, you will have developed a deep understanding of the implications of AI for managing business.
Planning for AI: Sensing AI opportunities and formulating AI strategies.
Adopting AI: Planning AI implementation in different contexts and operationalising responsible AI.
Using AI to support decision making: AI use cases, biases and other challenges, implications on individual creativity and organisational power.
The societal impact of AI: Consequences of algorithmic recommendation systems for consumers, for market dynamics, and for societal norms.
The course content is designed to be engaging and thought-provoking. Over the four days, you will learn about the latest trends and best practices in AI, and will have the opportunity to apply your knowledge to real-world scenarios through case studies. The afternoons will be spent working in groups to address a particular problem associated with the theme we cover each day. During this time, you will be encouraged to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that AI present to your own businesses. The last day will involve the groups presenting the work they have engaged in throughout the week.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Blocks 4-5 (Sem 2) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 16,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
74 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Case study analysis: 60% (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4)«br /»
Group presentation: 40% (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4) |
| Feedback |
Formative:
The course takes place over 1 week, hence formative feedback will predominantly be given during class, for instance as part of the case study discussions during the seminar. Moreover, each afternoon, the students will work in group on one of the topics associated with the final presentation. The lecturer will be available to answer any query and provide feedback on how the students have approached the question.
Summative:
Verbal feedback during the presentation in day 5.
Grades and feedback will be released within the university deadlines (15 working days) |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recognize and critically evaluate the opportunities presented by AI in different industries, and understand the principles involved in formulating effective AI strategies.
- Reflect upon and critically evaluate the risks and challenges associated with implementing AI in general, and the principles of responsible AI in particular in organisational settings
- Critically assess the implications of using AI for decision making in organisation, for instance in assessing the biases in decision making, develop and evaluate relevant use cases, and reflect on the relationship between AI and creativity and power relations
- Examine and critically assess the societal impact of AI, focusing on the consequences of algorithmic recommendation systems for consumers and society.
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Reading List
Key journals
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | AI |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Raluca Bunduchi
Tel: (0131 6)51 5544
Email: Raluca.Bunduchi@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Ashley Harper
Tel: (0131 6)51 1025
Email: Ashley.Harper@ed.ac.uk |
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