NUS Business School has expanded its executive education offerings with a stronger focus on artificial intelligence, aiming to help corporate leaders across Southeast Asia make better decisions in an increasingly AI-driven business environment.
The initiative addresses a key challenge facing modern executives: as artificial intelligence becomes more capable of generating answers, leaders must become better at asking the right questions. The school is piloting an AI-enabled approach to case-based learning that shifts the emphasis from analysing ready-made information to actively seeking and evaluating it under conditions of uncertainty.
Since January 2026, NUS Business School has been testing this method with MBA and Executive MBA students. In the new format, participants face an AI-simulated business problem rather than a traditional written case. They must decide what information they need, choose whom to interview, evaluate the responses they receive and form a recommendation. The platform powering the experience is ScholAIstic, a generative AI tool developed by the NUS AI Centre for Educational Technologies (AICET) to support role-playing and simulation-based learning.
Dr Emir Hrnjić, Senior Lecturer in Finance at NUS Business School, has worked with AICET to adapt the technology for management education. He has developed AI-simulated executive personas, including a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Product and Technology Officer. Each persona presents a different perspective on the same business situation, forcing students to navigate competing viewpoints and incomplete information.
After every interview, students receive personalised feedback on the quality of their questioning. This allows them to reflect and adjust their approach in subsequent interactions. Early analysis of interview transcripts suggests that stronger performances come not from asking more questions, but from asking more targeted ones, following up effectively and adapting as new information emerges.
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“Students must decide what they need to know, ask the right questions, challenge what they hear and exercise judgement without having the complete picture,” Dr Hrnjić said. “The aim is not to replace that human instinct with AI, but to sharpen it by helping students become more discerning about what to ask and what to trust. That is much closer to how leaders make decisions in the real world.”
The pilot has already reached close to 100 MBA and Executive MBA students across Singapore and Jakarta, many of whom are senior executives. NUS Business School sees potential to apply similar AI-simulated tools more widely across business education, particularly in areas that require questioning stakeholders, negotiating competing interests and making decisions under uncertainty.
The broader goal is to move beyond the largely static information environment of traditional case studies toward a more dynamic experience. In this model, students actively acquire information, pursue emerging lines of inquiry, challenge assumptions and exercise judgement as the problem unfolds.
The simulation forms part of NUS Business School’s wider effort to integrate artificial intelligence into teaching in ways that enhance, rather than replace, meaningful learning. The school aims to develop the judgement, critical thinking and adaptability that executives will need in workplaces where AI is increasingly present.
This focus is particularly relevant for Southeast Asia. Companies across the region, including Indonesia, are rapidly adopting AI in their operations. A 2020 study by Kearney and EDBI projected that artificial intelligence could contribute US$366 billion to Indonesia’s GDP by 2030, equivalent to about 12 per cent of projected GDP. In such an environment, the ability to question and assess AI-generated information is becoming a core leadership skill.
NUS Business School continues to explore how generative AI can recreate realistic decision-making scenarios while keeping human judgement at the centre of the learning process. Further details on the expanded executive programmes are available through the school’s website.
The development reflects a growing recognition that the most valuable skill in an AI-rich workplace may not be finding answers, but knowing which questions to ask.
