LBS AI Summit: Redefining enterprise, work and innovation

The LBS AI Summit 2025, held on 20 November, convened thought leaders, industry pioneers, and academics to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world of business, work, and society. The summit, which was organised by the School’s Tech and Data Science & AI clubs, saw leading experts explore not just the promise of AI, but the profound challenges and transitions facing organisations, individuals, and global markets.

The opening keynote, moderated by S. Alex Yang, Professor of Management Science and Operations at LBS, saw Azeem Azhar, Investor and Founder of Exponential View frame AI as the largest infrastructure change in history. He highlighted the speed and scale of adoption of tools like ChatGPT, which is driving an unprecedented transformation in tasks such as legal document analysis to post-merger integrations. With consumer and enterprise uptake soaring, and AI infrastructure investments expected to reach $40 trillion by 2040, Azhar recognised the huge opportunity that AI represents while also acknowledging the vast uncertainty and potential for volatility reminiscent of historical innovation booms and bubbles that exists.

A panel featuring Farhan Lalji (Teaching Fellow of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at LBS); Shirley George (Accenture); Edouard P. (Sana), and Tara Sakhuja (CEO of Data Dumpling) delved into how autonomous agents are transforming organisational structures and workflows. The panel stressed the importance of robust data, tools, and human investment, noting that trust challenges remain. While some predict 50-70% of roles could be impacted, most agree that tasks—not entire jobs—are more vulnerable and that new roles will evolve as AI matures.

John Gibson, Chief Commercial Officer at Faculty AI, stressed to Kanishka Bhattacharya, Adjunct Associate Professor of Management Science and Operations at LBS that history suggests employment levels remain stable even as job composition evolves. The real challenge is to make AI a ‘sustaining innovation’, ensuring that technological change truly transforms workflows not just tasks.

The rise of “agentic” roles, leaner teams, and individual contributors reflects shifting expectations of output and efficiency. As Alex Howman and David Winch of True Search highlighted to Jacqueline Yordán, Co-President of LBS’s People & Leadership Club, AI fluency—understanding LLMs, agents, and operational applications—is now a must-have skill, with nearly half of European investment now targeting AI-enabled businesses.

Industry leaders such as Nishant Prateek (Citi), Maliena Guy (Mistral), Benjamin Grol (Phoenix Court), and Chris Campbell (Cohere) discussed the hyperscale era of AI product management. They highlighted the necessity of strong privacy guarantees, especially for regulated sectors like finance and healthcare. Safety, customer trust and post-launch accountability were emphasised as critical to successful adoption within the enterprise context. The importance of safety was also underscored by Adriaan Engelbrecht and Margot van Laar of Anthropic’s Applied AI team, who demonstrated how agentic tools can dynamically increase organisational productivity and expertise.

Key Takeaways

• AI is driving the largest infrastructure and workflow transformation in history.

• Business success demands strategic alignment of AI with human intent and data quality.

• Talent and organisational structures are evolving toward lean, agentic models.

• AI fluency, change management, and trust are essential for real-world impact.

• Regulation, safety, and ethics must keep pace with exponential technological change.

Abhijai Garg (MBA2026), Conference Lead & Tech Club SVP of AI said:“AI is driving a tectonic shift bigger than anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes and now more than ever we need to bring the community shaping its future together – this was our mission with the LBS AI Summit. I’m thankful to Accenture for backing us and helping bring this event to life.”

The Summit underscored optimism amid uncertainty. AI’s potential is immense but harnessing it responsibly will define the next era of enterprise and innovation. As Arijit Ghosh (EMBAJ2026), Co-President of Data Science & AI Club commented: “Our student-driven AI initiatives, including the Summit and AI Agent Cup competition –both a first for our School–, are giving the next wave of bright minds the tools to create smart, self-sufficient solutions that actually make a difference in the business world.”