An IIM Ahmedabad student went viral on LinkedIn for claiming he used ChatGPT to complete a marketing project. Yugantar Gupta noted that while plagiarism is prohibited at IIM Ahmedabad, AI use is permitted. To his surprise, an assignment largely generated by AI earned him an A+, a rare grade typically reserved for the top 5% of students. His post sparked a heated debate about the role of AI in education, raising questions about effort, ethics, and the true value of learning.
"MBA at IIM Ahmedabad is full of assignments, projects and reports. Plagiarism is completely prohibited, but AI use is allowed. Getting an A+ on any report is difficult at IIM Ahmedabad. Some professors don't give it to anyone at all, as a policy. Most restrict it to the top 5% or fewer. While meaningless, an A+ always feels like a medal," he wrote on LinkedIn.
See the post here:
For his marketing project on cosmetics, Mr Gupta visited eight stores, observed shoppers, and took voice notes on their behaviour and questions. He then fed these notes into Chatgpt, which generated a polished report that earned him an A+ grade, one of the highest possible marks at IIM Ahmedabad. "For every observation and every interaction, I sent myself a voice note. In excruciating detail. On getting back to campus, I explained to ChatGPT our project requirements and uploaded the entire audio transcript. And out came one of my best graded projects at IIM Ahmedabad (after a lot of heavy editing, of course)," he explained.
Mr Gupta noted that the true value lies in generating unique content, such as first-hand observations, stakeholder interviews, surveys, and personal insights, which AI can't replicate. He concluded with three key takeaways for students leveraging AI in academics: focus on reviewing AI-generated content rather than writing it, engage with real people instead of trying to humanise AI output, and seek insights from professionals beyond peer discussions.
"And that's how you show that you can do something beyond what AI can on its own. At that moment, I could just remember a quote by Steve Blank, famous within startup circles - "Get out of the building” Real work gets done on the ground, not in front of your laptop," he concluded the post.
The post sparked a lively debate, with some users praising Mr Gupta's approach and others expressing scepticism. One user wrote, "AI can accelerate the process, but human curiosity, initiative, and outreach are irreplaceable."
Another commented, "I fully agree AI shouldn't be viewed as a cursed entity and rather as a tool to make ourselves more efficient and better. That's what I have been doing at my work. Also it's good to see that IIM Ahmedabad doesn't limit use of AI, would make my life a lot easier!"
A third said, "Brilliantly articulated. This is a timely reminder that real value lies in original thinking, conversations, and insights gathered from the field, not just clever prompts or surface-level summaries. AI can accelerate the process, but human curiosity, initiative, and outreach are irreplaceable. Thanks for the push to “get out of the building” and engage with the real world."
