The top 5 AI skills every business student needs

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a core competency in modern business. From marketing analytics and financial forecasting to operations and customer experience, AI is reshaping how decisions are made. According to Microsoft/LinkedIn's Work Trend Index Annual Report 2024, 75% of Australian leaders wouldn't hire a person without AI skills.

If you’re already working, the good news is that you're not starting from the beginning. You already understand business challenges and workplace dynamics. You now need to develop AI skills on top of that experience so you can make smarter decisions, work more efficiently and position yourself for senior roles.

In this blog, we will explain the top 5 AI skills every business student should develop to stay relevant and impactful as well as how you can build these skills.

1. AI fundamentals (non-technical)

The most competitive graduates today are those that can bridge business strategy with AI capability. Understanding AI fundamentals does not mean you need to know how to write code or develop software, but you do need to understand how AI models work, when to use it, how to effectively work with it and how to apply it responsibly.

It will be useful to understand:

Large Language Models (LLMs) - a ML model trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human language.
Types of AI systems such as Predictive AI whose purpose is to forecast outcomes or Generative AI which is used to create content such as text, videos and designs.
AI applications in your industry (e.g. personalisation in Marketing).
AI metrics
AI limitations

You could further explore algorithms, robotics, and technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT). AI is constantly evolving - having foundational knowledge will help you leverage their capabilities.

2. Data literacy

AI systems rely on data to learn, identify patterns, forecast and generate solutions. As a business professional, you don't need to build complex data models, but it will be useful for you to:

Understand different data sources and what they can be used for.
Interpret analytics reports confidently.
Use tools to transform data into compelling, visual reports (e.g. Microsoft BI).
Use insights for strategic decision-making.

An example of data literacy is instead of just reporting that sales dropped by 10% in the last quarter, you can use data insights to identify the top contributing factors and suggest possible solutions.

TOP TIP

Whatever outputs AI delivers, it cannot make the right decisions for you – you need to be able to interpret what the data says to achieve meaningful results for your company.

3. Prompt engineering

Prompt Engineering is the skill of writing the right questions, phrases and instructions to get the best answer from generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Knowing how to prompt saves time and effort, allowing you to achieve desired results quickly.

Weak prompts will produce low-quality answers. For better results, provide more information such as context, target audience, or sources such as websites and brand statements.

Here are some examples of weak and strong prompts.

Weak prompt	Strong prompt
Write a marketing email for our new product.	Write a 150-word marketing email for professionals aged 30–45 promoting our new AI-powered budgeting app. Highlight benefits, add a call to action for a free 7-day trial. Tone of voice is professional but approachable.
Analyse our sales data	Analyse the past 12 months of sales data for our e-commerce business to identify trends, top-performing products and customer purchasing patterns. Summarise key insights and suggest 3 actions to improve sales performance and customer retention.
Help improve our company's cyber security system.	Create a cyber security improvement plan for a 200-person company in Australia. Focus on reducing phishing risks, securing remote work devices, and compliance with data privacy regulations. Suggest tools, staff training and a 90-day implementation timeline.

You can also use frameworks which are systematic approaches to prompting. Here's an example of the Role-Task-Content-Format framework.

Role: Assign the AI a specific role.

Example: You are the executive assistant to a Chief Financial Officer.

Task: Clearly describe the task.

Example: Write a professional email to the executive team.

Content: Specify what content to include.

Example: The email is to call a meeting to review the progress of current projects and brainstorm ideas for a new finance project in Sydney, Australia.

Format: Specify how the response should be presented.

Example: Keep to 2 paragraphs. Limit of 100 words.

TOP TIP

You may not get the content you're looking for the first time. Keep refining instructions based on previous AI outputs to improve accuracy and relevance. Learn more about prompt engineering techniques.

4. AI Workflow Automation and Agent Development

One of the main benefits of using AI is that it can replace boring, repetitive tasks, giving you more time for more strategic and meaningful work. By integrating AI automation into daily workflows, you can produce quality work at a faster speed.

First, you will need to identify repetitive tasks that AI could be used to provide value and enhance productivity such as transcribing video calls, drafting reports and data analysis.

Here are some ways to integrate AI in daily workflows:

Human Resources - Use an AI-assisted screening process for candidate sourcing, profile matching and screening (e.g. LinkedIn Recruiter, Workday Recruiting).
Finance – Use machine learning models to predict cash flows and market trends for better investment decisions. Use AI tools to generate personalised financial reports and streamline reporting processes (e.g. Microsoft Power BI, Oracle Analytics Cloud).
Marketing – Use AI tools to analyse customer behaviour and preferences and create personalised content and product recommendations (e.g. Hubspot AI, Salesforce Einstein).

5. Ethical and responsible AI awareness

While AI offer great benefits for innovation, efficiency and decision-making, they also pose challenges to fairness, privacy, transparency, accountability and trust. You will need to develop the critical thinking skills to evaluate AI systems responsibly, recognise potential risks and biases, and ensure that AI technologies are used in ways that are safe, fair and aligned with human values. Here are two examples.

Bias and Fairness

AI systems can produce incorrect information or discriminate when trained on biased or incomplete data, leading to unfair decisions. Always fact-check AI-generated information against reliable reputable sites – do not just accept the outputs as truth.

Privacy and data protection

AI systems rely heavily on data, often including personal or sensitive information. Organisations must collect, store and use data responsibly while protecting individual privacy. Avoid uploading sensitive information (e.g. customer's personal details) to generative AI models to prevent privacy breaches. Remember, every piece of information you input, the AI model will retain.

How you can develop AI skills

According to the Tech Council of Australia, AI has the ability to create up to 200,000 new jobs by 2030. It's important that we not only build foundational AI skills but also adopt a continuous learning mindset as technology evolves.

Here are some practical ways to develop AI skills:

During your studies you can experiment with AI tools for research, data analysis or content creation in line with your education provider's AI governance policy.
If you're working, you can experiment with popular AI tools (e.g. Prompting on ChatGPT). Consistent, practical exposure will help build your confidence. Fortunately, almost every tool in business has an AI component such as Grammarly for writing, Canva AI for design, Excel's AI features for data insights and Zapier for automation.
Enrol in online courses and certifications where you can learn new AI skills at your own pace (e.g. Coursera, Trailhead)
Volunteer for company projects with AI integration or shadow a colleague with more AI experience.
Join AI communities such as Trailblazer Community, Open AI Community, Global AI.
Follow and learn from AI thought leaders on LinkedIn.
Keep up to date with industry news and announcements.

Equip yourself with AI skills in our Master of Business Analytics and Master of Information Technology courses. Learn more about studying business in Australia.