What 124 Future Business Leaders Really Think About AI and Work

As speculation about artificial intelligence and job loss continues to dominate headlines, a new analysis from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business offers something rarer: direct insight from the professionals who are living through the transition.

Conducted in the graduate course BUDT751 Harnessing AI for Business—which is closely tied to the MS in Information Systems and MS in Business Analytics programs and open to Master of Science in Management Studies students—the research synthesizes 124 independent career assessments written by the students, analyzing how AI will reshape their chosen professions, from business analysis and consulting to data science, product management, and cybersecurity.

The findings challenge a narrative that has dominated public discussion of AI and the workforce. Ninety-eight percent of students concluded that AI would transform their roles rather than eliminate them. But the more striking finding was what students called the speed paradox: AI does not reduce workload; it raises the bar for what is expected. If a task becomes 10 times faster with AI, employers tend to expect ten times more output, not significantly less work.

The analysis also identified a consistent shift in the value of professional skills. Manual data work, routine reporting, and repetitive coding are declining in importance, while strategic thinking, AI literacy, ethical judgment and the ability to evaluate AI-generated work critically are becoming central to professional success across every career path studied.

“What struck me most about this research is not what these students predict about AI. It is how intentionally the students have started preparing for this change in work and career paths,” says Tejwansh S. Anand, clinical professor, MS in Information Systems & AI academic director and instructor of BUDT751. “These students are not waiting for the workplace to tell them what AI fluency should look like. They are defining it, building it themselves.”

Gautam Shiv, a teaching assistant for the course and MS graduate of the Smith School’s Information Systems program, adds, “We set out to cut through the noise around AI and jobs by going directly to the people about to enter these careers. What we found was not panic. It was a remarkably consistent, strategic response to a real shift in how work gets done.”

The research also tracked which tools students are already using in their own work. SQL and Python remain foundational, while ChatGPT and Claude appeared in dozens of submissions despite neither being part of the course curriculum, a sign that students are adopting AI tools independently and ahead of formal instruction.

See a full account of the findings via Medium: “Beyond the Hype: What 124 Future Business Leaders Actually Think About AI.”

Topics InsurTech Trends Data Driven Artificial Intelligence Leadership