There are many changes afoot in the world of sales from evolving consumer and customer needs to digital acceleration and disruptive events. One way to get ahead and grasp these rapidly evolving concepts is to take an executive education program. Helsinki to Salt Lake City, the courses are offered by business schools across the world, through a mixture of in person and online learning. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharper focus the importance of using digital technology to create new distribution channels and sales strategies to satisfy changing consumer tastes. Therefore, many of the emerging executive courses in sales focus on digital transformation, but not so much on technology but rather people and culture, and how they can benefit the sales function.  

Thus, some of the programs focus on managing a sales workforce in terms of strategy, structure, motivation and performance management. But many will focus on the technology behind sales itself, including data analytics, with companies spending millions of dollars to collect and analyze their data to generate revenue and increase profit. Sales analytics is also about uncovering how salespeople can improve their own performance. 

Another area of focus is on ethics and how to make sound decisions, not solely based on economics. Here are the top 10 courses that encompass all of this and much more. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming business and life more broadly. Referring to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that once required human intelligence, AI is being applied to a number of business settings to create new economic value. 

In a data-driven world, executives need a thorough understanding of the power of AI to boost their individual and organizational performance, as well as its ethical implications for wider society and the threats it represents. Indeed, by 2025 the global AI market is expected to be worth almost $60 billion. 

To compete in a tech-driven economy, many business leaders, managers and technical specialists are enrolling in executive education programs—in artificial intelligence or machine learning—now run by dozens of the world’s leading business schools. In these programs, participants will learn about the current capabilities and business applications of the technology, and its future potential. More than that, executives will learn how to manage integration projects and communicate with technologists. There are also lessons to be learnt in avoiding common pitfalls. 

Other courses focus on specific and significant economic sectors such as financial services, where AI and machine learning are driving radical changes in the decision-making processes of financial institutions. Here are the top 10 executive courses in AI and machine learning: