Is an MBA Still Worth It in the Age of AI? Aubry Conley on Education, Experience and the Future of Work

For decades, the MBA has been one of the clearest signals of ambition in business.

You go back to school. You learn finance, strategy, operations and leadership. You build a network. You add three letters to your name.

But now AI can summarize a case study in seconds, build a financial model, generate a market analysis, help write a strategy memo and teach you concepts on demand.

So the question is getting harder to ignore:

Is an MBA still worth it in the age of AI?

On this episode of Legacy Launchers, I sit down with Aubry Conley, MBA, CSPO, an AI product consultant and Principal Consultant at Satern Solutions, with previous experience at Ford and HP, to talk about what business education is actually worth when knowledge itself is becoming dramatically easier to access.

The MBA Is No Longer the Only Place to Learn Business

One of the biggest changes AI has created is access.

You no longer need to sit in a classroom to learn the basics of marketing, operations, accounting, product management or strategy.

An ambitious professional can now ask an AI tool to explain a concept, challenge an assumption, role-play a negotiation, critique a business plan or walk through a case study.

That changes the value proposition of traditional education.

The question becomes less:

“Can an MBA teach me this?”

And more:

“What am I paying for that I cannot easily get somewhere else?”

That might include the network.

It might include recruiting access.

It might include credibility in a specific industry.

It might include the structure of being forced to study concepts you otherwise would have skipped.

But simply acquiring information is becoming a weaker reason to spend significant time and money on a degree.

Information Is Cheap. Judgment Is Not.

AI has made information abundant.

Judgment is still scarce.

Knowing a framework is different from knowing when to use it.

Generating a strategy is different from being responsible for the outcome.

Reading about leadership is different from leading people through an uncertain situation.

That distinction matters.

The professionals who remain valuable are unlikely to be the ones who can simply recall the most information. They will be the ones who can combine knowledge with experience, context and judgment.

AI can produce options.

A human still has to decide which option makes sense.

Experience Is Becoming More Valuable, Not Less

Aubry’s own career reflects the value of combining education with execution.

His background spans product, technology and consulting, including experience at major companies like Ford and HP.

That matters because an MBA in isolation is not the same thing as an MBA paired with real-world experience.

In an AI-heavy workplace, the strongest professionals may be those who can move between theory and execution.

They understand the framework.

Then they know what happens when the framework meets reality.

That is difficult to automate.

The Real ROI Question

People often ask whether an MBA is “worth it” as if there is one universal answer.

There isn’t.

The better question is:

Worth it for what?

If the goal is to enter an industry where MBA recruiting pipelines still matter, the degree may have substantial value.

If the goal is to build a network with a particular group of people, that can also be valuable.

If someone is already running a business and mainly wants practical skills, there may be much cheaper ways to get them.

If someone expects the degree itself to guarantee career security, that assumption deserves much more scrutiny than it did a decade ago.

The ROI is personal.

Tuition matters.

Lost income matters.

Opportunity cost matters.

And the specific career outcome matters.

A $100,000 degree that unlocks a career someone genuinely wants is very different from a $100,000 degree pursued because someone isn’t sure what else to do.

AI Changes What Employers Should Value

For years, credentials helped employers answer a basic question:

Can this person do the work?

AI complicates that.

A candidate can now produce polished presentations, reports and analyses with tools available to almost everyone.

That makes finished output alone less revealing.

Employers increasingly need to evaluate how someone thinks.

Can they ask good questions?

Can they recognize when AI is wrong?

Can they make decisions with incomplete information?

Can they communicate with other humans?

Can they take responsibility?

Can they actually execute?

Those skills are harder to fake.

They also aren’t guaranteed by a degree.

Your Degree Still Matters. It Just Can’t Be the Whole Story.

There is a temptation in conversations about AI to swing between extremes.

Either education is everything.

Or degrees are suddenly useless.

Neither position is particularly helpful.

A strong education can still create enormous value.

So can experience.

So can relationships.

So can technical fluency.

So can the ability to use AI effectively.

The strongest career strategy may be to stack them.

A degree plus execution.

AI literacy plus domain expertise.

Technical ability plus communication.

Credentials plus a body of work.

The future probably belongs less to people who have one impressive signal and more to people who can combine several.

The Question Every Prospective MBA Student Should Ask

Before enrolling, someone should be able to finish this sentence:

“I am getting an MBA because it will help me ______.”

Not:

“I think I should.”

Not:

“Everyone in my field has one.”

Not:

“I don’t know what else to do.”

There should be a concrete destination.

A specific industry.

A network.

A recruiting pipeline.

A promotion.

A career change.

A capability.

Without that, the MBA risks becoming an expensive substitute for clarity.

AI Makes Clarity More Important

Ironically, AI may make human decision-making more important precisely because it makes so many options available.

There are endless courses.

Endless certificates.

Endless tools.

Endless career paths.

Endless information.

The challenge is no longer finding information.

It is deciding what deserves your time.

That applies to business school too.

The MBA isn’t disappearing.

But the days when the credential alone could carry most of the value proposition are changing.

The smartest question isn’t whether an MBA is universally worth it.

It is whether this MBA, at this price, for this goal, at this point in your career, creates enough value to justify the investment.

And in the age of AI, that is a much more interesting question.

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🎙️ Listen to the full Legacy Launchers conversation with Aubry Conley, MBA, CSPO for more on business education, AI, career strategy, product leadership and what professionals should be learning now.