6 November, 2026 | Pictured: Caitlin Forgan-Smith, QUT Bachelor of Business (Finance/Funds Management) graduate and Investment General Manager, QLD at QIC
As data and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to reshape the way organisations operate, employers are increasingly looking for graduates who can turn complex insights into strategic business decisions.
This was a common theme raised by the industry experts who helped inform the development of QUT's new Bachelor of Business, (Strategic Business Analytics). As part of our commitment to keeping courses aligned with industry needs, we regularly review and evolve our offerings in consultation with industry.
Launching in 2027, the new major has been designed to help students develop the analytical, strategic and communication skills organisations are increasingly seeking, preparing them to connect data, technology and business strategy to drive better decisions.
One of the contributors was Caitlin Forgan-Smith, a QUT Bachelor of Business (Finance/Funds Management) alumna and Investment General Manager for Queensland at QIC, one of Australia's largest investment managers. She shared her thoughts on emerging business trends, the skills organisations are looking for, and how the new major will help graduates succeed in a rapidly changing business environment.
Caitlin, thank you for chatting with us. As AI and automation become more embedded in business, what skills and capabilities do you think will be most valuable for the next generation of business professionals?
Honestly, I think the most valuable thing is a healthy dose of scepticism and enough technical knowledge to know what you're looking at. The tools are only going to get better at producing something that looks right, so the skill becomes knowing how to test the answer — does this actually make sense, what assumptions sit behind it, and what would I expect to see if it were wrong?
The people who can get into the detail and then step back and communicate what it means commercially will always be in demand.
What are you seeing when it comes to the skills organisations need, as AI, data and analytics become a bigger part of how they operate and make decisions?
The biggest shift I’ve noticed is that data literacy is no longer something that sits with one specialist team. Instead, it’s expected that everyone across the business can pull information, understand what it’s telling them and use it to make an informed decision. So, we need people who are comfortable working with data even if their job title has nothing to do with analytics.
What's still in short supply is people who can connect the dots — take the analysis and turn it into a decision the business can actually act on.
What do you think will distinguish professionals who thrive in an AI-enabled workplace from those who simply know how to use AI tools?
The people who thrive treat AI as a starting point, not an answer. They use it to get the grunt work out of the way and then spend their time on the part that actually adds value – the thinking, the judgement, the conversation with the stakeholder.
The specific tools are going to keep changing, so you need to be able to pick up whatever comes next and apply it to a business problem.
From your experience hiring and working with graduates, what qualities make graduates stand out to employers?
Technical skills might get you in the door, but they're rarely what separates people once they're here.
Being able to read a room, ask a good question and build a relationship can get you further than being the strongest modeller in the team. I'd take someone with solid technical skills and great emotional intelligence over a technical superstar who can't communicate, every time.
You helped inform the development of QUT's new Bachelor of Business (Strategic Business Analytics). What skills gaps will it help address?
We're not short of technical capability and we're not short of commercial thinkers. What's hard to find is someone who can work with data properly and then translate what it means into a business decision.
What I like about how it’s been built is that it doesn’t just focus on the analysis — it also covers governance and how to communicate the outcome. Those are the two places I see people come unstuck. Someone can do beautiful work and still not shift a decision because they couldn’t get it across to the person who needed to act on it. And the expectations around governance and accountability are only increasing — having graduates who’ve already thought about where the obligations sit is genuinely valuable to an employer.
The other gap it helps with is judgement. If students are learning to question outputs, understand where data comes from and think about the limitations of what they're being given, they'll arrive much better equipped to handle that 10% that automation can't do for them. That's a hard thing to teach on the job.
Looking ahead, how do you think strategic business analytics skills will help graduates contribute to organisations as AI and emerging technologies continue to evolve?
Graduates will be able to contribute to real decisions much earlier in their careers than people like me probably did. When I started, you spent years doing the manual work before you got anywhere near a strategic conversation.
The long-term value isn't in knowing one particular tool — it's in understanding how to structure a problem, what data you need to answer it, how much confidence you can have in the answer and who it affects.
As a QUT Bachelor of Business alumna, what has it been like to return to QUT and help shape the new major?
It's been really rewarding, and a bit surreal if I'm honest — it feels like it wasn't that long ago that I was the student sitting in those lectures wondering how any of it would apply.
QUT wasn't looking for a tick of approval on something already finished; they wanted to know what we're actually struggling to find when we hire, and they've been prepared to build the course around that.
That degree opened the door to my entire career, so having a chance to help shape what the next group of students get is a pretty easy thing to say yes to.
Interested in a career in analytics, strategy or business intelligence?
Discover how the Strategic Business Analytics major can help you develop the skills to turn data into meaningful business decisions.
Explore our Bachelor of Business (Strategic Business Analytics)