From AI Strategy to Python: MSBA Opens Fall 2026

How can businesses turn artificial intelligence into a competitive advantage? In Competing in the Age of AI, Professor Ricardo Lim invites students in the MSc in Business Analytics & AI (MSBA) program to examine how AI and data are reshaping business models, customer experience, productivity, and innovation.

Like many of our professors, Prof. Lim brings a distinctive combination of academic leadership and industry experience to the subject. Before entering academia, he worked as a consultant for Siemens-Nixdorf Computer Company in Manila and Computer Sciences Corporation in Boston. He later served as Dean of the Asian Institute of Management and President of the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS), and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

The course was followed immediately by *Python Programming*, taught by Professor Jerome Locson, creating a course doubleheader that moved from business strategy to technical application. Students begin developing practical skills in Python, working toward the ability to prepare datasets, conduct statistical analysis, and visualize findings. The pairing highlights the MSBA’s emphasis on connecting the strategic questions businesses face with the analytical tools that can help answer them.

By Day 3, students were tackling data transformation and manipulation, learning how to handle missing information, group datasets, merge records, and work with text. Applied cases in areas such as foreign exchange trends, customer analysis, and market basket analysis give students opportunities to connect these techniques with practical business questions.

The combination captures the MSBA’s approach to analytics education: understanding how AI and data influence business decisions while developing the technical skills to put that understanding into practice. Now entering its second year, the program continues to expand its curriculum at the intersection of technology, analytics, and management.