What does meaningful learning look like when you’re balancing a demanding role, international responsibilities, and a rigorous EMBA program?
With today’s geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility, and the fast-moving integration of AI into nearly every aspect of business, executives are navigating intense complexity with less time than ever to pause and reflect about their own learning and development.
At the International Institute of Management Development (IMD), the learning innovation team has been exploring how AI can help participants in the Executive MBA program. What if AI could make learning more integrated, personal, and aligned with your goals, even between modules? Not by replacing the deeply human aspects of leadership development, but by supporting them.
Here’s how IMD is putting that into practice.
AI that helps you connect the dots as you learn
One of the first ways IMD began integrating AI into its degree programs was also one of the simplest: helping participants make better sense of what they were learning, as they were learning it.
IMD AI+ is a generative AI tool trained on the school’s own program content, faculty insights, and real case material. It’s available to learners during their studies as a kind of always-available thinking partner. It is ready to explain a tricky concept, revisit a lecture topic, or connect dots between different modules.
What’s interesting is how participants are actually using it. Not to cut corners, but to stay curious. To unpack ideas in the moment, or revisit something days later when it finally starts to click.
It’s not designed to replace teaching, it just makes it easier to keep learning, even when the classroom session ends.
And that’s exactly what set IMD’s learning innovation team down a new path: if a tool like this could help learners stay engaged during the program, what else might be possible between sessions? Or even beyond them?
That question led to something much more personal.
Stay focused and on track with the right nudge
When you’re doing an EMBA, you’re balancing the demands of work, life, and an intensive program. It can be a challenge to keep your development front of mind. Sometimes what you need isn’t more content or information. You need clarity. A gentle reminder. A nudge in the right direction, right when it matters.
That’s where IMD’s new AI-powered nudging tool comes in. It’s designed to support learners in a quiet but meaningful way: prompting reflection, reinforcing goals, and connecting them to the right insights at the right moment.
It can serve as a valuable partner in between coaching sessions, or for learners who aren’t currently working with one. The goal isn’t to replace the human element, but to work alongside it.
As Sarah Grant, Director of Learning Innovation at IMD, puts it:
Here’s how it works:
- It helps learners think more clearly by posing questions and prompts that encourage self-awareness and reflection.
- It supports accountability by reminding you of the goals you’ve set and nudging you gently back toward them.
- It draws from tested frameworks aligned with IMD’s personalized learning journeys.
- It stays in its lane, fully transparent about being AI and careful not to overstep.
- It evolves over time by learning from interactions and adapting to your rhythm, with governance in place to keep it aligned and responsible.
Behind the scenes, the nudger draws from diagnostics and insights already embedded in the IMD EMBA experience. As participants move through the modular, flexible program, it offers a steady, low-friction way to keep personal development on the radar. Whether you’re focused on inclusive leadership, decision-making, or communication, the system is designed to surface your goals when it matters most.
In a program as dynamic and self-directed as the EMBA, growth can’t just happen during the modules. It has to stretch into the in-between. This tool is designed to help participants turn everyday moments into meaningful steps forward.
Make confident choices in a flexible program
One of the most exciting things about IMD’s Executive MBA is the flexibility. You can shape your own path, choose your focus, and decide what kind of global experience you want to build.
One of the most exciting things about IMD’s Executive MBA is the flexibility. You can shape your own path, choose your focus, and decide what kind of global experience you want to build.
But sometimes choice can be overwhelming. With so many possibilities, how do you know what comes next? What aligns with your growth, your goals, or even just your curiosity?
That’s why IMD is developing new ways to help learners make more intentional choices. With the help of AI, they’re exploring how to map out the different “what ifs” that come with every possible path and turn that into a thoughtful, immersive experience.
Something that invites you to pause and ask:
- Where do I want to grow next?
- What would challenge me in the right way, right now?
- What might I miss if I don’t choose this path?
The idea isn’t to automate your decisions. It’s to create space for reflection. To offer a clear, human way of thinking through your options that draws on faculty insight, behavioral science, and smart use of AI.
It’s one more way IMD is rethinking what it means to learn. Not just by offering more choice, but by helping you navigate it with clarity and purpose. That’s the kind of experience IMD is working to build. Real. Reflective. Integrated into your life, not separate from it.
And with AI, it’s now possible to bring that level of support to each EMBA participant in ways that are faster, more personal, and designed to stretch far beyond the classroom.
Learning that keeps pace with your life
You don’t need to be convinced that learning matters. You already know it’s part of staying sharp, staying relevant, staying ahead. Making it happen, in the thick of everything else you’re balancing, that’s something else entirely.
The IMD EMBA approach is unique. Yes, it’s rigorous. It’s global. You’ll step into high-impact modules like the Global Immersion Weeks, where you’re tackling live business challenges in unfamiliar markets. You’ll build new capabilities and expand your leadership range.
However, the program doesn’t treat those moments as the only ones that matter. In fact, the time between them matters just as much. The strategy offsites. The conversations that give you something to mull over. The unexpected moments when something you learned weeks ago suddenly comes into play.
That’s why IMD is designing a learning experience that doesn’t stop when the module ends. One that meets you where you are, adapts to how you think and lead, and stretches with you as your goals evolve.
AI is part of that equation. So is the team of coaches, faculty, and learning designers behind the scenes. Together, they create a framework that helps you reflect with structure, make decisions with clarity, and keep developing even when life is at full tilt.
Explore how the IMD EMBA is evolving to meet the way you learn: IMD Executive MBA
About the International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) has been a pioneering force in developing leaders and organizations that contribute to a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive world for more than 75 years. Led by an expert and diverse faculty, with campuses in Lausanne and Singapore, a Management Development Hub in Shenzhen and an Innovation Hub in Cape Town, IMD strives to be the trusted learning partner of choice for ambitious individuals and organizations worldwide. Our executive education and degree programs are consistently ranked among the world’s best. Through our research, programs, and advisory work, we enable business leaders to find new and better solutions, challenging what is and inspiring what could be. To learn more, visit www.imd.org
