Australia’s first MBA (Artificial Intelligence) lands in Adelaide on Tuesday, June 23, paired with a half-day summit that Flinders Business School is using to test whether a regional university can claim the country’s leading AI business credential before Sydney and Melbourne respond.
The pitch is timed. Microsoft’s regional workforce data shows demand for AI and machine learning skills has climbed roughly 245 percent in Australia since 2023, while only 5 percent of small and medium businesses qualify as “fully enabled” on strategic AI capability. Flinders is trying to plant a flag in that gap before the larger rivals catch up.
What’s on the June 23 Agenda
Hosted by David Koch AM, the financial commentator awarded an honorary doctorate by Flinders University in April, the summit runs from 8.30am to 11.45am at the City Campus at Festival Plaza in central Adelaide. Ticketing is open through the school’s events portal.
The headline interview pairs Koch with Jane Livesey, who became Microsoft’s president for Australia and New Zealand in November and has spent her first six months pushing AI adoption across enterprise customers. She joined Microsoft from Cognizant, where she ran Asia Pacific and Japan, after earlier consulting leadership roles at PwC Australia and Accenture’s ANZ technology group.
Chris Kohler, finance editor across the Nine Network’s news bulletins and author of the 2025 book How They Get You, delivers a keynote on consumer economics and the AI-driven productivity squeeze. Industry panels are organised around generative AI in workplaces, workforce capability and shifting market conditions, with attendees drawn from government, finance, technology and the next cohort of postgraduate business students.
The Workforce Gap Driving the Summit
Australia’s AI skills problem is already measurable. Microsoft’s regional research, EY productivity modelling and independent adoption surveys converge on a picture that is unflattering and lucrative at the same time.
- 245 percent rise in demand for AI and machine learning roles in Australia since 2023
- 49 percent of Australians say they have used a generative AI tool in the past year
- 5 percent of Australian SMBs (small and medium businesses) qualify as “fully enabled” on strategic AI capability
- $22 billion in projected productivity gains from Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure AI tools across the Australian economy, per EY modelling
The mismatch between fast adoption at the worker level and shallow capability at the strategy level is what business schools are now scrambling to address. More than half of the small and medium business workforce has only basic or novice AI literacy, according to AI Lab Australia’s state-of-adoption survey released this year. Only 10 percent rate as advanced.
The leadership translation problem is what Flinders is positioning the new program for. Knowing how to prompt a chatbot is one skill. Embedding AI into a board paper, an operating model or a risk register asks for a different muscle, and one that mid-career professionals say they did not pick up from earlier degrees.
That gap is also where the summit’s panels are aimed. The agenda question Koch has flagged in pre-event interviews, whether AI is coming for everyone’s job, is less interesting to the schools and recruiters in the room than the follow-up: which leaders will be paid more in three years because they can answer it credibly.
Why Flinders Is Building Australia’s First MBA (AI)
The Master of Business Administration (Artificial Intelligence) is expected to begin teaching shortly, subject to final regulatory approval, the university has said. It will sit alongside the fast-track 12-month MBA Future Business and seven existing specialisations, including business analytics and international business.
Curriculum framing announced so far covers four applied areas: leadership decisions under AI uncertainty, operations and process redesign, ethical and regulatory boundaries, and strategic deployment inside the firm. Dr Afshin Tanouri, the MBA program director, has told the university the existing portfolio already weaves AI skills across every stream, with the new specialisation deepening rather than duplicating that work.
Professor Angie Shafei, Associate Professor and Dean of Business at the school, frames the addition as a response to changes graduates already feel in the job market.
Today’s graduates and leaders need more than technical knowledge alone. They need the ability to think critically, adapt quickly and make informed decisions in increasingly complex environments.
Shafei delivered the line announcing the program. She holds both a doctorate in business administration and an MBBS from Cairo University, and previously built Flinders’ industry partnerships with National Australia Bank, Mitsubishi Motors and SA Health.
How the Field Already Looks
Flinders is not entering empty ground. Several Australian universities have launched AI-flavoured graduate business credentials in the past 18 months, though none has yet shipped a full “MBA (AI)” branded degree. The brand distinction matters more than the curriculum overlap. An MBA still carries currency with recruiters, family offices and board nominators that a specialist masters does not, particularly outside the Sydney and Melbourne corporate corridors.
| Institution | Program | AI Focus | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| RMIT University | Master of Business Analytics and AI Strategy | Standalone degree, applied analytics plus AI | On-campus and online |
| RMIT University | Executive MBA (Strategic AI and Business Analytics) | Specialisation inside EMBA | On-campus |
| UTS | Master of Artificial Intelligence | Technical AI degree, not MBA | On-campus |
| Flinders University | MBA Future Business | AI integrated across topics | 12-month fast-track |
| Flinders University | MBA (Artificial Intelligence) | First MBA-branded AI degree in Australia, pending approval | To be confirmed |
RMIT’s analytics and AI strategy degree is technically deeper on the data science side, and its Executive MBA already has a strategic AI track for senior managers. The Adelaide bet is that “MBA (AI)” on a business card opens different doors, especially for general management hires where recruiters scan for the three-letter qualification before reading anything else.
Inside Flinders’ Postgraduate Push
The summit and the new program arrive as the school’s MBA portfolio is on a tear. Flinders entered the CEO Magazine Global MBA rankings for the first time this year, finishing equal 36th in the Global Online MBA list out of more than 340 programs across 24 countries. Enrolment has more than doubled in three years.
That growth has been built on flexibility. The school now runs a one-year fast-track, a fully online asynchronous track, a two-year industry-intensive option, a four-year PhD MBA, and seven specialisations covering analytics, international business, health management and other niches. The AI specialisation extends the menu rather than replacing it. Parallel events like the ECU cybersecurity summit on tech careers show how business and technology schools are increasingly co-hosting industry days to recruit working professionals into upskilling pipelines.
There is a regional dimension too. Adelaide has positioned itself as a defence, space and advanced manufacturing hub, with Lot Fourteen, the Australian Institute for Machine Learning and the Australian Space Agency anchoring an innovation precinct within walking distance of the Festival Plaza campus. The business school has been deepening industry contracts inside that precinct since 2023.
Whether the program lands alongside the Australian Graduate School of Management or Melbourne Business School in five years is the open test. Flinders does not yet appear in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking. The AI launch is partly a credentialing gambit, betting that a first-mover label gets the school into international conversations that ranking points alone might not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Is the Flinders AI Business Summit Held?
The summit runs at Flinders University’s City Campus at Festival Plaza, opposite Adelaide Railway Station, on Tuesday June 23, from 8.30am to 11.45am. The venue is the school’s eight-level vertical campus in Adelaide’s central business district.
Who Can Attend the Summit?
Yes, the event is open to industry professionals, government and policy stakeholders, finance specialists, technology leaders, media and prospective postgraduate students. Tickets are released through the business school’s events portal and earlier sessions have sold out before the date.
When Does the MBA (AI) Start Teaching?
The school expects the program to commence soon, subject to final regulatory approval of the new degree. Inquiries are already open through the postgraduate admissions team, and Flinders has indicated the first intake will be small while the curriculum beds in.
How Does the Program Compare With RMIT’s AI Strategy Masters?
RMIT’s Master of Business Analytics and AI Strategy is a standalone analytics-heavy masters. The Flinders offering sits inside the MBA family, which carries different recruiter recognition for general management roles outside specialist analytics functions and pairs management foundations with applied AI topics.
Will the MBA (AI) Be Available Online?
The university has not confirmed delivery mode. Flinders’ broader MBA suite already offers fully online asynchronous study, on-campus and hybrid options, so at least partial online availability is likely when the AI version launches.
What Background Do Applicants Need?
Existing MBA admissions require an undergraduate degree plus relevant work experience, with pathways for senior managers who lack a bachelor’s degree but bring substantial industry leadership. The AI specialisation is unlikely to require a coding background, since the program is pitched at general managers rather than data scientists.
Doors at the City Campus open at 8.15am on summit morning, and the business school expects to see by August whether the launch lifts inquiries into the postgraduate suite, or whether RMIT and UTS follow with their own MBA (AI) labels before the year is out.
