AI weakens written assessments, driving a return to live exams, say ten business school deans

Business schools are turning to oral defence and live assessment as AI makes written work an unreliable signal of independent thinking, according to 10 top European business school deans.

Schools are rethinking assessment because written submissions on their own can no longer provide sufficient evidence of what students understand.

"We are not going to analyse what you submitted," says Pedro Oliveira, Dean of Nova SBE. "We are going to analyse your ability to argue the point you are making in the document and to defend the document. If the thesis was written by AI, it will be obvious in 30 seconds."

The finding comes from The Future of Graduate Management Education Revisited 2026, a new report from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

A follow-up to GMAC's 2022 study, the report draws on interviews with deans from Esade Business School, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, HEC Paris, IMD, Imperial College Business School, INSEAD, London Business School, Nova School of Business and Economics, the University of Glasgow and Vlerick Business School, alongside evidence from the GMAC Prospective Students Survey 2026, the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey 2026 and the GMAC Application Trends Survey 2025.

Nova SBE has increased the time students spend defending their theses, while Frankfurt School is bringing back oral examinations and final presentations. At HEC Paris, "machine off" assessments completed with pen and paper test students' foundational knowledge, while "machine on" exercises assess how effectively students can use AI. INSEAD is developing interactive AI-powered case studies in which students engage with an avatar of the protagonist and must ask the right questions to uncover the information they need. Peter Todd, Dean of Imperial College Business School, describes the shift towards live assessment as the "performative arts".

The report finds that schools face two connected challenges: preserving students' ability to think independently and teaching them to use AI effectively. Marion Debruyne, Dean of Vlerick Business School, warns of "cognitive surrender", where students outsource their learning and thinking to AI and lose the ability to practise fundamental skills.

"Employers and candidates need to know that a qualification remains a reliable signal of capability. The response to AI should strengthen that trust by making the standards behind assessment clearer and more meaningful," says Nalisha Patel, Regional Director, Americas and Europe at GMAC.

Behind the change in assessment is a change in purpose. The report finds that business education is shifting from delivering information towards developing judgement, adaptability and human connection. As generative AI takes over more routine analytical work, schools are placing greater emphasis on communication, empathy, collaboration, conflict resolution and complex problem framing.

Beyond AI, the deans describe a shift from a "flat world" to a "rugged world", where trade disputes, political fragmentation and restrictions on mobility are making security and resilience central to management education. Schools in Europe are also moving beyond reliance on a single flagship MBA. Specialised master's degrees, executive education and interdisciplinary programmes are taking on greater strategic importance, while several deans caution that stackable programmes and micro credentials remain difficult to deliver profitably.

The findings mark a significant change from GMAC's 2022 report, when technology was discussed mainly in relation to online and hybrid teaching. Four years later, the focus has shifted from where students learn to how schools can establish that students are still doing the thinking.

The report can be downloaded on GMAC.com.

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For more information, or to speak with Nalisha Patel, please get in touch with Alex Lopez at alex@bluesky-pr.com, or on +44 (0)1582 797959.