As AI reshapes work and recruitment, ESCP is rethinking how we prepare students for their careers by integrating AI literacy with human judgement, specialist career support and closer employer connections.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the first steps graduates take into working life. At ESCP, preparing students for that shift means more than teaching them to use the latest tools. It means rethinking the skills they need, the career support they receive, and the connections that help them turn their education into opportunity.
The career ladder has moved
The discourse around graduate jobs and AI is notably mixed. For some, it’s doom and gloom; for others, it's a new dawn for human-to-human connection. When Louis-David Benyayer, Associate Professor and AI Initiatives Coordinator at ESCP, considered what AI really means for graduate jobs, he concluded that the first rung of the career ladder has not disappeared. It has shifted.
ESCP Careers Director Florence Coquereau agrees. “At this stage, we have not seen a significant decline in graduate recruitment that can be directly attributed to AI.” Instead, ESCP is seeing longer recruitment cycles, more cautious employers and changing expectations.
AI fluency is rapidly becoming a baseline capability. Coquereau compares it with Microsoft Office proficiency: something that may soon be assumed rather than a differentiating skill.
“What will really make the difference is the ability to use these tools intelligently: knowing how to ask the right questions, verify the answers, apply critical thinking, and turn information into decisions.”
Preparing students for a higher first rung
The distinction between using AI and using it well is reflected in ESCP’s broader approach. AI literacy is being integrated across programmes, supported by initiatives including mandatory AI training, and collaborations with OpenAI and Hugging Face. The aim is not simply to give students access to technology, but to develop fluency so it can be used effectively.
Jiao Liu is a Master in Management alumna who participated in ESCP’s 1000 AI Champions pilot programme. After exploring AI’s organisational impact in her Digital Transformation course, she was invited to work on AI-driven pricing and promotion projects during an internship.
“AI raises expectations for newcomers,” she says. “It’s no longer enough to master technical skills. We also need to show how we can collaborate with AI to generate efficiency, creativity, and fresh ideas for companies.”
Support that AI cannot replicate
If AI is reshaping what employers expect of graduates, it is also reshaping the support students need to meet those expectations.
As students increasingly use AI to explore industries, refine their applications and research potential employers, ESCP Careers is evolving to provide the kind of personalised guidance that technology alone cannot offer.
Working alongside a dedicated Careers team, students benefit from sector-specific expertise, strong corporate relationships and a network of expert Careers Advisors across ESCP’s campuses, helping them turn information into informed career choices, meaningful connections and opportunities aligned with their individual ambitions.
“What these experts provide is precisely what AI cannot replicate: experience, understanding of individual circumstances, and emotional intelligence, as well as specialist, sector-specific guidance,” says Coquereau.
She advises students to devote 70% of their energy to the “why” and 30% to the “how”. AI can help someone prepare for an interview, improve a CV or structure an analysis. It cannot determine why that person wants a particular career, company, or profession. Those questions require reflection and conversations with peers, professionals, alumni and faculty, where judgement, self-awareness and critical thinking are developed.
Human connections matter more in an automated market
The same paradox extends beyond the Careers Centre. When candidates can apply for more jobs, and employers can screen more candidates, direct human connections can become more valuable, not less.
That makes ESCP’s relationships with employers an increasingly important part of preparing students for an AI-enabled labour market. Corporate partners provide insight into how roles and expectations are changing, beyond what students can learn from a company website or an AI summary. They also offer students opportunities to meet employers directly.
At an AI Hackathon organised by ESCP Careers teams on ESCP’s Turin campus in 2025, 120 students worked alongside mentors from 12 corporate partners and developers to tackle real-world customer experience challenges. Rather than simply practising with AI tools, students had to apply them to concrete business problems and develop potential solutions.
“This is exactly what our partnerships enable us to do: connect students with the realities of the market, companies and emerging technologies through practical experiences,” says Coquereau.
Who you are still matters
This ongoing dialogue with employers helps ESCP understand what organisations seek as roles evolve. And despite the pace of technological change, the qualities employers value are not exclusively technical.
“What emerges strongly from our conversations is the importance of critical thinking, analytical ability and adaptability,” says Coquereau. “And fit remains essential. Because ultimately, we don’t work with AI: we work first and foremost with colleagues, teams and clients.”
Learning to set the direction
“A business school cannot simply update its programmes every two or three years when technology is evolving almost every week. It needs to stay in constant dialogue with students, companies and the market,” says Coquereau.
“Given an equivalent level of skills, someone who knows how to use AI to augment their capabilities will be able to devote more time to analysis, creativity and higher-value tasks. This could enable graduates to contribute at a level that would previously have required more experience, much earlier in their careers.”
The career ladder has shifted, creating new opportunities. For ESCP, preparing students for these opportunities ultimately means equipping them to do more than use AI effectively.
“Ultimately, our ambition at ESCP is to train students to set the direction: to define the vision, ask the right questions, make decisions and take responsibility for the outcome,” says Coquereau.
“AI can be an extraordinarily powerful tool for execution, but it must always remain at the service of human judgement and decision-making.”
Explore more AI at ESCP and discover our many initiatives that help students understand, use, and critically assess artificial intelligence.
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