Together with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China Europe International Business School, and Tsinghua University, Microsoft will bring comprehensive AI business courses on artificial intelligence strategy establishment, culture development, and technology deployment for future business leaders, innovative start-ups, and entrepreneurs.
Together with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China Europe International Business School, and Tsinghua University, Microsoft will bring comprehensive AI business courses on artificial intelligence strategy establishment, culture development, and technology deployment for future business leaders, innovative start-ups, and entrepreneurs.
Shanghai, China – August 30, 2019 – Microsoft, together with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China Europe International Business School and Tsinghua University, announced the launch of the first Microsoft AI Business School in China, combining the dual resources of offline interactive teaching and online courses.
Jay Liu from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Liu Jing from the China Europe International Business School, Ma Jia from the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, and Roan Kang, General Manager, Marketing and Operations, Greater China Region, Microsoft, attended and witnessed the launch ceremony
“The advancement of AI has opened up unprecedented opportunities in the current world, leading more and more businesses and organizations to proactively embrace AI,” said Roan Kang, General Manager, Marketing and Operations, Greater China Region, Microsoft. “Microsoft possesses nearly 30 years of investment in AI research, and we have also accumulated extensive experience working with business leaders and transformers across industries. We are happy to share these research outcomes and practical experiences with local existing and future business leaders via the Microsoft AI Business School in China, to enable them to unlock the opportunities created by AI; this includes defining an AI strategy, enabling an AI-ready culture, emphasizing responsible AI in business, and preparing AI technology overviews for business leaders. Today, our partnerships with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China Europe International Business School constitute, and Tsinghua University an important step for us to drive the Microsoft AI Business School in China, as well as an exciting opportunity to accelerate digital transformation for Chinese businesses and help them win.”
Microsoft‘s first “offline + online” dual-resource AI Business School lands in China
Earlier this year in March, Microsoft launched its AI Business School (www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-business-school). According to Gartner’s 2019 CIO Survey, 91% of enterprises plan to use AI in next 3 years and 37% have started or are planning to start their AI initiatives next year. This showcases that most companies have realized the important role of AI applications in the process of digital transformation. However, the industries still have challenges to grasp a whole understanding of AI and how it will be applied to real scenarios, and this is why Microsoft started AI Business School – to fulfill this blank. Microsoft AI Business School offers a series of online courses focused on AI strategy, culture, and responsibility, which are complemented by rich cases and sharp insights across key industries including manufacturing, retail, healthcare, FSI, and government. This path to greater industry learning aims to create real business value and realize the true transformational power of AI in the enterprise.
The modules are also accompanied by other AI learning initiatives from Microsoft, including the developer-focused AI School and the Microsoft Professional Program for Artificial Intelligence, which provides job-ready skills and real-world experience to engineers and others looking to improve their skills in AI and data science. Unlike these other initiatives, AI Business School is non-technical and designed to get executives ready to lead their organizations on a journey of AI-enabled digital transformation. Microsoft has announced a partnership with INSEAD, a graduate business school with campuses in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, to build the AI Business School’s strategy module, which not only examines the AI technologies driving change across industries but focuses, in great detail, on managing the impact of AI on company strategy, culture, and responsibility.
China is one of the most active and innovative markets for AI. In order to equip Chinese entrepreneurs and future business leaders with an understanding of how AI technology will bring about both opportunities and challenges, systematically develop, deploy, and implement AI strategy, and win in and with the AI era, Microsoft creatively conducts in-depth cooperation with top local business schools to offer dual-resource (offline interactive teaching plus online courses), tailor-made AI business courses for Chinese business leaders. As the first batch of partner curriculums, the Microsoft AI Business School is cooperating with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China Europe International Business School and Tsinghua University to provide a range of courses with unique features, including:
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business: Customized courses for innovative start-ups
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) has always sought to cultivate business leaders with a global vision, a humanistic spirit, a strong sense of social responsibility and an innovative mindset. Co-founded by the school and its alumni, the CKGSB Chuang Community is a global learning platform and accelerator for start-up founders and entrepreneurs that leverages CKGSB’s key differentiations— a world-class faculty, an innovative curriculum system and an exclusive alumni network in China.
In partnering together, CKGSB, Microsoft and SoftBank China will explore how AI technologies can best be applied in entrepreneurial and innovative industries such as the retail and FMCG industries, the real estate and smart home industries, logistics and transportation, and intelligent manufacturing. As part of the collaboration, Microsoft and SoftBank China will also provide support on the Turing Plan– an AI and IoT innovation camp carried out by the CKGSB Chuang Community, which has now kicked off its first-round of recruitment (learn more details here). While CKGSB will be responsible for devising the overall curriculum and providing resources, Microsoft will offer support in curriculum design and the invitation of lecturers specializing in cutting-edge development trends, technology applications, and successful case studies in different industries.
In speaking about the collaboration, Professor Liu Jing, Associate Dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business said, “Facing the future, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business will continue to integrate innovative resources to develop a global platform for start-ups to enhance and drive socio-economic progress. As part of this development, the Turing Plan will provide an entry platform for AI technologies to empower traditional industries. It will also allow us to explore joint solutions with leading enterprises in both the traditional industries and AI/IoT innovative start-ups. We hope that through the Turing Plan, CKGSB Chuang Community can become an accelerator and an experimental space to provide businesses with access to leading AI technologies, capital and industrial resources. By doing so, we are able to help simulate business scenarios for AI applications and transition proof of concept cases into reality. Our ecosystem partners are then able to duplicate these workable solutions and applications in their respective industries to achieve growth through disruptive innovations.”
China Europe International Business School: The first school-enterprise, jointly-built high-level executive training class
The China Europe International Business School is a joint management education venture co-founded by the Chinese government and the European Union. Renowned for its academic rigor, CEIBS is the first business school in mainland China to have been accredited by both EQUIS and AACSB; moreover, it is the only business school in Asia to have simultaneously made it into the Financial Times’ top 5 list of both MBA and EMBA programs. CEIBS is committed to educating responsible leaders versed in “China Depth, Global Breadth”, in line with its motto of “Conscientiousness, Innovation, and Excellence”.
In this partnership, the China Europe International Business School will work with Microsoft to bring to life the first jointly-built, high-level executive-facing CXO series curriculum. Both parties will work closely together to offer executive students such as CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and CMOs customized AI business school courses to cultivate business leadership in multi-dimensional digital transformation.
Speaker of the China Europe International Business School said, “CEIBS is committed to educating responsible leaders versed in ‘China Depth, Global Breadth’. This time, we are partnering with Microsoft to deepen our international teaching approach and adopt rich methods and formats that target different management levels and sectors. Our aim is to help mid- to high-level executives across different industries enhance their management abilities and leadership in the business scenarios that will be unleashed by AI, so as to effectively tackle complex business challenges.”
School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University: Tailor-made systematic credit courses for MBA and EMBA students
Tsinghua University is one of China’s top universities, and its School of Economics and Management is one of the first business schools in China to obtain the leading two certifications for management education – AACSB and EQUIS. Its objective is to cultivate future political and business leaders, and possesses an extensive influence.
In this partnership, the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University will join hands with Microsoft to build up an AI curriculum and launch a systematic plan to nurture high-end talents. The two parties will work together to create not only joint certified courses and credit courses for the MBA and EMBA programs, but also non-joint certified courses and credit courses such as high-level executive seminars, industry roundtables, forums, and online courses, and to drive the progress of building up high-level executive training school forward. The School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University is responsible for crafting the curriculum, while Microsoft will provide authoritative lecturer resources, related technologies, and more.
Speaker of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University said, “The mission of our university is to promote the development of social innovation through its own, forward-looking education and activities. The creation of these MBA and EMBA credit courses as well as the high-level executive training school will further improve the foresight of local business schools, share the most cutting-edge technical perspectives with future business leaders, and build up a robust foundation of talent for the future business community to embrace, upgrade, and transform with the help of emerging technologies. Our cooperation with Microsoft is long-running, and we hold high expectations and anticipation for future cooperation between the two sides.”
In the future, the Microsoft AI Business School will continue to partner with a greater number of local enterprises, universities, and online communities, as well as introduce more management lectures and study content for a wider range of verticals. For more information on the Microsoft AI Business School, please refer to the website: www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-business-school.
About Microsoft
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