A few months ago, I would probably have answered this question very differently. Today, while pursuing my own MBA in Aviation Management, I keep coming back to one question: Is an MBA still worth it in this era? The world has changed dramatically. You no longer need to depend entirely on a classroom to access knowledge. You can learn from university lectures online, read books and research papers, study company reports, watch industry experts, and now use AI tools to explain difficult concepts, analyse information, compare businesses, and even help you build projects. So the obvious question becomes: what exactly are we paying an MBA institution to teach us?
I think this is an important question for anyone considering an MBA today. The traditional idea of an MBA was fairly straightforward: study business and management, develop professional skills, build a network, receive a recognised qualification, and use that qualification to move towards better opportunities, leadership roles, career changes, or entrepreneurship. That model has not disappeared. Employers still value graduate management education, and current research from the Graduate Management Admission Council shows that organisations continue to value business-school graduates while placing increasing importance on AI and technology skills alongside communication, adaptability, strategic thinking, and problem-solving. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 similarly identifies analytical thinking as one of the most important core skills for employers while highlighting AI, big data, creative thinking, adaptability, and lifelong learning as increasingly important.
But I think the value of an MBA is changing. Information itself is becoming cheaper and easier to access. Take something as simple as airport revenue. If I want to understand aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenue, I can read ICAO material, Indian regulations, AERA documents, airport annual reports, academic papers, and industry publications. I can then use AI to help me understand terminology or compare different concepts. The information is available. The real challenge is knowing what information is trustworthy, understanding the context, connecting different pieces of knowledge, and using them to make a sound decision. That is where I believe modern management education has to prove its value.
AI makes this question even more important. A student today can ask an AI tool to explain a complicated finance concept, compare two airline business models, analyse a company’s financial information, create a presentation structure, generate interview questions, or help develop a business idea. Simply knowing how to produce something is becoming less valuable. What matters more is whether you can recognise a bad assumption, question an inaccurate answer, verify a source, understand the business implications, and make a decision when there is no perfect answer. In my view, the future is not really about choosing between an MBA and AI. It is about understanding how to combine management knowledge, technology, AI, data, and human judgment.
So, does that mean an MBA is useless? I don’t think so. But I also don’t think everyone needs one. An MBA makes sense when it solves a particular problem in your career. It can be useful for someone moving into management, changing industries, building a company, developing business knowledge, or pursuing a career where the qualification and network genuinely matter. The problem begins when someone assumes that simply paying for an MBA automatically creates knowledge, skills, or a career. The degree is only one part of the equation.
This is especially important to me because I am studying Aviation Management. Aviation is an industry where knowing the names of concepts is not enough. I can know what airport capacity, airline revenue management, ground handling, route planning, safety management, airport economics, or aviation regulation mean, but that does not automatically mean I understand how these things work in the real world. I need to look at actual airports, airlines, regulations, financial statements, operational examples, and industry decisions. That is the difference between memorising a subject and understanding an industry.
This is also the reason I have started changing my own approach to my MBA. When a topic appears in class, I don’t want that lecture to be the end of my learning. I want it to be the starting point. If we study airport revenue, I want to examine real airport accounts and regulatory documents. If we study airline strategy, I want to analyse real airlines. If we study airport operations, I want to connect the theory to what I observed during my internship. If we study aviation regulation, I want to read the regulation itself rather than stopping at a few classroom slides. The MBA can give me the curriculum, but I increasingly believe that I have to build the education myself.
That is why I think the question should not simply be, “Is an MBA worth it?” The better question is, “Is this particular MBA worth what I am paying, what I am giving up, and what I want to achieve?” Before enrolling, I would now ask what I will actually know after graduation that I could not realistically learn elsewhere. I would ask what practical experience I will receive, what kind of people I will meet, what opportunities the institution actually creates, what its graduates are really doing, whether the curriculum reflects the modern business environment, and whether the programme is helping me move towards the life and career I actually want.
For me, the biggest lesson is that a degree and an education are not automatically the same thing. An MBA can provide a framework, a credential, access to people, and a structured environment, but it cannot replace curiosity, independent learning, practical experience, technology skills, or the willingness to build something yourself. The internet has made information accessible, AI has accelerated learning, and the nature of work is changing rapidly. That means I do not think the modern MBA student can afford to sit back and wait for the institution to teach everything.
I am still in the middle of my own MBA, so I am not writing this as someone who has already figured out the final answer. I am writing it as someone trying to understand the value of the degree while actually living through it. Right now, I believe an MBA can still be worth it, but the letters M-B-A alone do not create value. The value comes from what you can understand, what you can apply, what you can build, and what opportunities you can create with that knowledge.
So perhaps the modern MBA student should stop asking, “What will this degree give me?” and start asking, “What am I going to build with it?”
That is the question I am asking myself now.