Business Careers
The honest answer is that it is early, uneven and worth taking seriously
Students hear that AI will take their jobs and, in the next breath, that it will create better ones. Neither is a basis for a decision. This session sets out what recent studies and employer surveys do and do not show, looks at the tasks within sales, marketing, finance, HR and operations roles that AI tools are being used for, and practises using them carefully.
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Students are being asked to plan on very little information.
The evidence on AI and early-career work is recent, partial and mostly from outside India. A Stanford Digital Economy Lab study of US payroll records from the payroll provider ADP, revised in August 2026, reports that employment of 22 to 25 year olds in AI-exposed occupations is lower than that of peers in less-exposed ones, mainly through reduced hiring, and its authors describe the results as early and descriptive rather than causal. That is about the United States and does not tell us what will happen in India.
Employer surveys in India point in a more mixed direction. TeamLease EdTech's employer surveys report employers looking for AI fluency, data literacy and the judgement to question an AI output, and expecting freshers to contribute within months. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found analytical thinking the most sought-after core skill among the employers it surveyed. None of this is a forecast of any one student's prospects, and the session says so.
What the session covers
32 topics across 7 areas. Seven parts: evidence, tasks, tools, limits and skills.
What the Evidence ShowsSources, dates and limits, stated each time.5
- The Stanford study on US early-career employment, and what “descriptive, not causal” means
- The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 on skills employers say they want
- TeamLease EdTech's reports on fresher hiring in India, and how to read a survey of employers
- What no study can tell a student about their own job search
- Why headlines are usually more confident than the research
Students are encouraged to read the sources themselves and to check for newer editions.
Sales and Marketing TasksWhere drafting and research tools are being used.4
- Researching a prospect or a market before a call
- Drafting emails, posts and campaign copy for a human to edit
- Summarising customer feedback and call notes
- What still depends on a person: trust, judgement, negotiation
Finance and Analyst TasksFaster first drafts, same responsibility.4
- Cleaning data and drafting formulas, for checking
- Summarising a long report or a filing
- Drafting a first version of a commentary
- Why a person remains accountable for every number sent out
HR and Operations TasksWhere care about people and data matters most.4
- Drafting job descriptions and routine HR communication
- Scheduling, documentation and process notes
- Screening resumes, and the risk of unfair or hidden bias
- Why employee and candidate data needs particular protection
Using AI WellA skill employers now mention.5
The exercise: complete a small entry-level task once without a tool and once with one, and mark every error in the second version.
- Giving a clear prompt with context and a goal
- Checking facts, numbers and sources before relying on an output
- Knowing when not to use a tool
- Telling a manager when AI was used, if that is the workplace rule
- Not entering confidential, personal or client information into a tool the employer has not approved
What Remains ValuableSkills that do not depend on one tool.5
- Analytical thinking and reasoning with numbers
- Clear writing and speaking
- Understanding a customer, a business or a process
- Working with people and handling disagreement
- Learning quickly, and showing it in a project
Planning Without PanicWhat a student can do this term.5
- Choosing one or two tools to learn properly
- Building a small project that shows judgement, not only tool use
- Talking to people already working in the function
- Reviewing the plan every six months
- Treating the topic as one factor, not the whole decision
Exercises in the session
- Reading a short extract from a study and a survey, and noting what each claims
- Doing a task with and without an AI tool, and comparing
- Finding the errors in a flawed AI-written summary
- Rewriting a prompt to be clearer
- A short plan for the next three months
What we do not do
- Predict any student's prospects
- Recommend or sell any AI tool or course
- Tell students that jobs will or will not disappear
- Use real client or employer data in the exercises
How the session runs
A practitioner who uses AI tools at work, and a hiring manager, explain what they have seen and what they now expect from freshers, followed by exercises in pairs. Because the research moves quickly, the facilitator checks the sources for newer editions before each session and tells students the date of each figure used. Students may use their own devices, and an approved tool is used for the exercises only where the college allows it.
What your students leave with
- A clear view of what the research shows, and what it does not
- An understanding of which tasks in business roles AI tools commonly assist
- A way to use AI for drafting and research while checking what it produces
- An understanding of what employers say they now expect from freshers
- A list of skills worth building that remain useful whatever the tools do
- A habit of disclosing and protecting confidential information when using tools
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Learn the tools. Keep the judgement.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.