IIMA launches AI school backed by ₹100 crore endowment
The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad has inaugurated the Krishnamurthy Tandon School of Artificial Intelligence, a new institution designed to connect AI research with practical business and governance applications. The school opened with a ₹100 crore endowment from Chandrika Tandon and her husband, Ranjan Tandon.
The launch reflects a shift in how business schools approach AI education. Rather than treating artificial intelligence as a technical subject, IIMA is positioning the school to address how organizations actually adopt, govern, and deploy AI systems. The focus extends to leadership, decision-making, and organizational readiness-areas where many companies currently fall short.
What the school will teach
The school will concentrate on applied research across industry sectors and business functions. Faculty members emphasized that future AI challenges go beyond technical problems to include ethical, institutional, and organizational issues. This requires leadership and governance expertise, not just engineering knowledge.
Pankaj Patel, chairperson of IIMA's Board of Governors, said the school represents a "bold new chapter" in industry-academia collaboration and will develop leaders who understand technology, management, and societal impact together.
What research shows about current AI adoption
The school released its first research report alongside the inauguration, analyzing roughly 100 enterprises. The findings reveal a consistent problem: companies are investing heavily in AI but focusing on short-term efficiency gains rather than long-term strategic change.
The report identified three major gaps:
- Lack of clear AI leadership structures
- Weak governance frameworks
- Misalignment between operating models and data readiness
The report introduces an "AI Value Compass," a framework that helps organizations evaluate AI projects more thoroughly by accounting for risk, governance, and workforce readiness. The research was developed with Persistent Systems.
Why this matters for managers
For management professionals, the school's focus addresses a real gap. Many organizations have AI strategies on paper but struggle with execution. The emphasis on governance, leadership, and organizational alignment directly tackles the obstacles that prevent companies from getting value from AI investments.
The school aims to produce insights grounded in Indian business contexts while maintaining global relevance. This matters because AI adoption challenges differ across regions and industries, and solutions built for one context often fail in another.
Learn more about AI for Management or explore AI for Executives & Strategy to deepen your understanding of how to lead AI initiatives in your organization.
Your membership also unlocks:
