Diego del Alcázar Benjumea is one of the most influential faces of contemporary global education. Executive Vice President of IE University, his career combines legal and business training with a humanistic perspective that understands education as the epicenter of social and economic transformation. He has a double degree in Law and Business Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid and an MBA from INSEAD Business School, one of the most prestigious institutions in the world.
His leadership has been internationally recognized – in 2017 he was awarded the David Rockefeller Scholarship for his civic and public commitment – and his thinking embodies a balance between innovation, technology and humanism, a triad that has guided the evolution of IE University, the institution he presides, facing the future.
“We are experiencing an enormous transformation,” he says in a reflective voice at the beginning of the conversation with Forbes. “Business leaders are trying to understand two things at the same time: on the one hand, the new geopolitical context, marked by polarization and trade tensions, and on the other, the technological impact, especially the disruption of artificial intelligence.”
For Alcázar, education is today more than ever a moral and strategic compass: “Universities help contextualize these changes and, above all, help business leaders make more informed, more ethical and more sustainable decisions.”
He says that IE University was born in the seventies as a business school “founded by an entrepreneur and for entrepreneurs.” In a Spain that was emerging from the dictatorship and opening up to the world, the institution opted for diversity, innovation and entrepreneurship long before they became slogans of modern management.
“We were the first business school whose MBA had a mandatory entrepreneurship subject,” he recalls. “That was not common then. We were born with a liberal, open and international spirit. Today we have students of more than 140 nationalities and no national group exceeds 10% of the total. That diversity defines us.”
Alcázar emphasizes that agility is another of the distinctive features of what is necessary in today’s education. “We make decisions quickly, we invite teams to make mistakes and learn quickly. In the academic world this is not so common. Universities tend to be slower structures, but we maintain an entrepreneurial culture also in management.”
A figure in the world of education, Alcázar led his institution to consolidate itself as a global benchmark by combining four fundamental values: diversity, innovation, humanities and entrepreneurship. In practice, he says with conviction, these pillars translate into a transversal pedagogy where students must understand the usefulness and consequences of what they learn.
“A computer science student not only studies mathematics: he must understand what it is for and how it can become a useful product or service for society. But, above all, he must reflect on its implications. Our humanistic vocation forces us to ask ourselves whether what we create has positive consequences or not.”
In that phrase the spirit of what is considered the education of the future is summarized: it is not only about teaching to innovate, but about doing it with conscience. “Not everything in life is teaching useful things. Useless things must also be taught, in the best sense. The humanities remind us that knowledge does not always have to serve a practical purpose: it must also help us enjoy what it means to be human.”
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Diego del Alcázar Benjumea: educational leadership in the age of AI
The alliance between IE University and OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into the educational process has turned the institution into a pioneering laboratory in the ethical and pedagogical use of artificial intelligence, to which Alcázar avoids empty enthusiasm by betting on a critical approach.
“It is curious how the human being baptizes things to activate certain parts of the brain. Calling this artificial intelligence generates alarm. But an intelligence, to be such, must be conscious. And this one is not, since it can beat the best chess player in the world, but it does not know that it is playing. That difference is essential,” he reflects.
For him, AI represents an inevitable advance: “There is an unappealable technological imperative: this is going to exist and will reach its maximum exponent. But there is also a humanistic flipside: we must protect ourselves as a species and use technology to improve ourselves.”
The agreement that the house of higher education that he directs closed with OpenAI together with Sam Altman himself, allowed ChatGPT licenses to be delivered to all IE students, teachers and employees. The objective, explains Alcázar, was to observe how the community used it organically and then design new methodologies. “We did not want to impose a use, but rather learn from them. And from there, fascinating ideas emerged. For example, in some exams we directly give an answer generated by an AI and ask students to argue or refute it. This raises the level of critical thinking and generates very rich discussions.” In short, it forces them to think.
The result, he says, has been a cultural change. “We are recovering orality, which forces us to structure thinking in a different way and improves learning exponentially. We are even reintroducing manual writing in some exams. These are practices that seemed obsolete, but are demonstrating their enormous cognitive value.”
In this sense, Alcázar does not minimize the risks of AI, he only insists that its value will depend on the use we give it. “Artificial intelligence allows us to be more productive and efficient, but most importantly, it helps us personalize education. It can free up time for what really matters: critical thinking, creativity and empathy. And those are the skills that will define the leaders of the future.”
Educate for uncertainty
In the same way, the world, he warns, is going through a stage of simultaneous interconnection and conflict. “We live in a geopolitical, technological and social environment that is constantly changing. These three factors feed off each other. Technology connects us, but it also amplifies tensions. And universities must prepare our students to navigate that context with judgment and adaptability.”
In that sense, he boasts that IE’s global training seeks more than just transmitting knowledge: it teaches how to live with complexity. “The profile of our students is someone who is informed, curious, who understands the international context. It is not about arguing, but about understanding. If you mention the relations between China, India or the United States, they know what you are talking about. They are people who understand the interdependence of today’s world.”
But in the face of uncertainty, Alcázar returns to values. “When everything changes so quickly, there is no better tool than an entrepreneurial mentality. Those who see changes as opportunities and not threats have an enormous advantage. And that also implies an innovative, open attitude, with the ability to connect different cultures and knowledge.”
His vision is summarized in a conviction: education not only forms professionals, but also conscious citizens. And in that purpose, humanism is the basis of leadership. For the education of the future, the interviewee affirms the need to promote “each student to bring out the best in themselves. We do not seek just economic success, but for each one to become someone extraordinary in the deepest sense: someone capable of contributing to their society and feeling fulfilled with it.”
Before concluding, he offers three pieces of advice for the leaders of the future: “first, have an entrepreneurial mentality. Changes are dizzying, and we must embrace them with curiosity and not with fear. Second, embrace technology through experimentation: use it to understand its possibilities and limits. And third, reclaim the humanities. Remember the usefulness of the useless, as Nuccio Ordine said. Understand ourselves and enjoy what it means to be human.”
In the same glass office, the conversation ends as it began: with our eyes set on the horizon. Alcázar maintains that education is called to be the great space of balance between the human and the technological. “AI does not replace human thinking. It forces us to rethink it. And that is the most noble task that educators have: keeping curiosity, empathy and the capacity for wonder alive,” he concludes.
In a world that advances at the speed of algorithms, its message sounds like a warning and hope: the knowledge revolution will only be truly transformative if it remains, above all, deeply human.
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