In July 2025, two Executive MBA voices from Cambridge Judge Business School joined the global conversation on artificial intelligence at the AI for Developing Countries Forum (#AIFOD2025), hosted at the United Nations Office in Vienna.
Rethinking work in the Intelligent Age
Suchi Ramaswamy (EMBA 2024) challenged the audience to look ahead: “Imagine the year 2035. Would work as we define it today look the same?”
Drawing on the World Economic Forum’s concept of the Intelligent Age, she highlighted how automation is disrupting roles faster than reskilling can respond. In life sciences, AI adoption proceeds with caution, validation and impact in mind. In technology, adoption races ahead, creating fractures in the labour market.
Ramaswamy stressed that the future will not only belong to those who use AI, but to those who can train it. Skills, science and technology must work in tandem if the workforce is to adapt and thrive.
Research to impact: From healthcare migration to AI companions
Lee Cortez (EMBA 2023) brought in insights from his Cambridge research project, which examined the experiences of internationally educated nurses in the UK. These skilled professionals fill urgent healthcare gaps in advanced economies but often encounter culture shock, isolation and workplace vulnerability.
To respond, Cortez developed an AI companion tool trained for inclusive conversations and cultural learning. Nurses used it to decode slang, navigate workplace norms and find comfort in a ‘non-judgmental friend’. While concerns about privacy and bias were present, many returned to the tool, drawn by the immediacy of support.
For Cortez, this outcome highlights the importance of building AI with communities, not only for them. He argued that open-source AI, with its transparency and collaborative ethos, offers a path to include vulnerable voices towards risk mitigation, a critical consideration for bringing AI to developing nations and underrepresented communities. His discussion also demonstrated how the Executive MBA Individual Project research can move beyond the classroom, offering practical contributions to global debates as far reaching as the United Nations.
A shared contribution
Together, Ramaswamy and Cortez emphasised that conversations on AI adoption must extend beyond technology alone. The interplay of skills, science and systems is essential to shaping the future of work and ensuring that AI develops in ways that are inclusive, ethical and responsive to needs across all nations.
Call-out: Business schools on the global stage
The participation of Ramaswamy and Cortez illustrates the role of executive education in bridging research, practice and policy. As members of Cambridge Judge Business School, they demonstrated how Executive MBA students can take academic and professional insights into international forums, influencing conversations on some of the most urgent challenges and pressing opportunities of our time.
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