By Chana Wakslak, Senior Business Editor and Business Manager
Walk into any business school and ask students what they want to do. You’ll hear a familiar script — investment banking, consulting, big tech, maybe private equity eventually. The logic is solid: prestigious firm, structured training, stable salary, upward mobility.
But the uncomfortable truth is that the typical stable job is quickly collapsing.
Over the last few years, even the most established and respected firms have had sweeping layoffs. Companies like Meta or Google have trimmed thousands of employees despite strong brand names and record profits. Performance cultures have intensified. Roles disappeared overnight. Stability, it turns out, was never a guarantee; it was a narrative.
Artificial intelligence is transforming entry-level, white-collar work; this is exactly what students are aiming for. Tasks once performed by analysts and associates are increasingly automated. Building financial models, summarizing research and reviewing contracts now takes minutes with free AI models. Tools from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic can now generate models, structure slide decks, write code and streamline workflows almost instantly. What used to take teams of interns can now be done by one person with the right prompts.
This doesn’t mean corporate jobs are disappearing tomorrow. But it does mean that the competitive advantage is shifting. If AI can handle the technical baseline, what differentiates you is judgment, strategy, systems thinking and creativity. Ultimately, it’s about thinking like an owner rather than an employee.
Recently, I experimented with AI to build a basic app concept. This would have once required months of coding or outside funding, but with AI I had a functional prototype in hours. That experience changed how I think about opportunity. If the cost of building drops this dramatically, then the barrier to entrepreneurship drops with it.
This is where business students should be paying attention. Entrepreneurship doesn’t just mean launching a startup. It means spotting inefficiencies, building tools internally, automating processes and creating value before someone asks you to. In a world where AI is reshaping accounting, law, finance, marketing and operations, the most valuable people won’t be the ones who resist the tools, but the ones who master them.
There’s also a bigger mind shift happening. For years, students optimized resume efficiency. Secure internships led to a return offer, which meant a stable corporate path. But if stability is no longer guaranteed, maybe the smarter strategy is optionality. Learn emerging tools. Take calculated risks while you’re still early in your career. Build side projects. Experiment. Try ideas while the rules are still being written.
We are in a period of technological flux. Historically, flux creates outsized opportunities. The students who win won’t be the ones who cling to the illusion of corporate security. They’ll be the ones who treat AI as leverage, not a threat, and who realize that in a world where machines can execute, humans must design, decide and imagine.
The question isn’t whether AI will change business careers. It’s whether you’ll change with it.
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