Executive education has traditionally started with the curriculum. Harvard, INSEAD, Wharton and other leading business schools decide what executives need to learn, assemble the faculty, design the program and invite participants to enrol.

What if we reversed it?

Start with the executive. What do they already know? What don’t they know? What are they curious about? What problems are they trying to solve? Where do they want their career to go? Then design the curriculum around them.

Until recently, that would have been difficult and expensive. AI changes the economics of customisation. It makes it possible to imagine an executive education program with a cohort of one.

A CFO might combine artificial intelligence, strategy, geopolitical risk and leadership. A professional services partner might choose business development, psychology, negotiation and organisational design. An entrepreneur might want finance, marketing, governance and technology. There is no particular reason these people should follow the same curriculum.

There is also no reason every subject should be taught in the same way. A participant might learn finance from a professor, strategy from a practitioner, leadership through coaching and negotiation through simulation. AI can explain concepts, generate exercises, challenge assumptions, curate material and adapt the learning as the executive develops.

The role of the business school changes accordingly. Instead of asking executives to choose from a catalogue of programs, Harvard, INSEAD or Wharton could help them answer a much more interesting question: what should I learn next?

The curriculum could then evolve. An acquisition creates a need to understand valuation. A promotion introduces new leadership challenges. Expansion into Asia creates an interest in geopolitics and culture. A board appointment creates a need for governance. Development follows the executive rather than the executive following the program.

That also changes the unit of executive education. Instead of buying a three-day course or a twelve-week program, an executive could build a learning relationship that lasts for years.

AI doesn’t diminish the value of great teachers, business schools or executive education. It makes personalisation possible at a level that previously wasn’t practical.

Perhaps the next innovation in executive education isn’t another course.

It’s a curriculum of one.