Employees of 2025, or remote managers for that matter, will have more responsibilities to deal with than just monitoring employee behaviour and productivity. They will have to directly ‘manage with’ data. Artificial intelligence and data science are upending business operations, integrating them more deeply than ever. The shift from 2025 onwards will reward managers for the ability to predict, analyse, and act on AI inferences. It will demand a new hybrid skill—technology married to the art and science of management.
In what follows, we will centre on our vision that AI and data analytics have and will continuously transform management roles, the reason these roles are strategically important, and discuss the PGDM in business analytics that SoIM offers as a case in point. SoIM combines theory and practice for students to lead with confidence as job-ready graduates.
The Necessity of AI Skills and Data Analytics for Future Managers
Leaders in both boardrooms and factories no longer rely on intuition and experience alone. Instead, they harness the power of algorithms and predictive models. For this reason, engagement with details and understanding skills for analytic tools has become the default language in business. It has become a requirement for every manager, not just those in the technical field.
The leading-edge advantage that a company has over competitors is a result of better data-driven decisions. Managers are now able to calculate and assess risks, and AI tools are becoming more capable of processing dense data in mere seconds. By doing this, they allow leaders to shift from the traditional problem-solving strategy to the more advanced proactive approach, where they are able to forecast challenges and deal with them before they materialise.
AI can boost the productivity and effectiveness of a company, and for this reason, managers have begun understanding AI. Managers are now capable of creating automated systems for monotonous activities, enhancing supply chain systems, and improving customer engagement. All of this makes the manager more cost-effective and enables them to shift the focus of their team to more complex, creative and critical thinking tasks. Investments in the above technologies will allow the leaders to develop more innovative, productive and flexible organisations.
In the end, the relevance of managers to successfully lead the teams is greatly enhanced when they possess strong analytical skills. These managers can set reasonable goals, supported by data, and track advancement with concrete parameters. This level of clarity promotes accountability and a mindset focused on ongoing enhancement. This is because every member within the organisational setup is aware of the data set utilised in making a decision, hence there is confidence and unity where all members are focused on a shared target.
SoIM has made a shift in the technologically rapid-paced world by combining Business Management and Technology in their PGDM program, Business Analytics.
Data and leadership integration is a strong pillar in the newly crafted curriculum. SoIM has incorporated this forward-looking trend into its PGDM curriculum by preparing the students to cultivate the needed skills to navigate the dynamics of a tech-enabled managerial landscape.
The integration of core management subjects like finance, marketing, and strategy, along with machine learning and its practical applications, data visualisation, and predictive modelling at the SoIM is unique. Students learn the real-world significance of statistical model construction. Faculty members are experienced industry and academic professionals who incorporate real-world problems into the classroom in their teaching in order to make learning practical and applicable.
The SoIM program’s distinguishing characteristic is its ability to integrate all the program elements. Development of emotional intelligence to become “whole-brain,” able to understand and easily converse about a P&L and a Python script in addition to a people management strategy, is complemented by technical skills.
Real-World Projects That Build Job-Ready Skills
A project from one of the teams in the course developed a machine learning model to optimise customer retention for a telecom client. Another team applied machine learning for a retail client’s inventory. As encapsulated in these projects, protégés derive the skills to tailor a model to a problem by ideologically slicing the model, cleansing the data, undergoing a purposeful cycle, developing, and confirming a hypothesis of the issue presented.
All these processes rationalise the model, capturing it in a presentational format designed for the stakeholders. Innovation paired with strategy translates to economic and social value. Thus, our graduates possess tactile proof of the worth of the contribution model to a business. In addition, these prototypes capitalise the vision absolutely why SoIM SoIM alums are one of the highly targeted graduates by geared recruiters.
Check the curriculum for more details on the industry projects available on the Business Analytics page.
Alumni Perspectives: Careers Transformed Through Data-Driven Learning
Alums from SoIM’s PGDM in business analytics, for instance, have been spotlighting data-driven initiatives at prolific corporates, which are a testament to the educational transformational value.
A former student of this program, and currently a senior analytics manager at a top e-commerce company, claims she mastered the confidence to manage diverse teams because of the program, stating, “SoIM taught me how to speak the language of both business and data science.” she continues to explain, “A boardroom meeting with the CEO and a room filled with data scientists is not the same, and I can manage both simultaneously because of how I tailor the discussion. That’s a skill that is impossible to put a price on.”
Another graduate, a product manager working at a fintech startup, highlights the fact that the program’s approach to fraudulent issues was tailored to suit the working environment. He states, “SoIM was the same setup that was created during the fraud detection program. I was able to start running with the project because I was already an expert from the skills SoIM offered.” These quotes highlight a SoIM graduate’s lesson: data is not the focus; rather, it is how to approach, manage, and use data that dictates success.
Learn How SoIM Gets You Ready for the Data-First Business World.
AI and data are the future of almost every field. Management has its share of benefits from these innovations. We can easily foresee the future for managers who learn to interface with these tools: growth, innovation, and success. However, such complex future concepts need to be simplified, and the educational approach has to be in line with the innovation.
SoIM’s PGDM in Business Analytics prepares you with the necessary skills and relevant experience, as well as the leadership attitude to succeed in the age of the new. You are welcome to learn more about us if you want to position yourself in the middle of these two tools of competitive edge that are redefining every aspect of modern business.
Learn how SoIM prepares you to be an executive in the business world driven by data.
