What does education look like in the AI age? LABASAD’s answer fundamentally reshapes the school’s academic structure

LABASAD (Barcelona School of Arts & Design) is known globally for its forward-thinking approach to creative education – as its online setup implies – with students working remotely worldwide across a wide range of master’s degrees. The institute’s enterprising philosophy has for years been embracing new developments across the industry, especially AI, even launching an entire master’s in Generative AI last year.

As of 2026, LABASAD has taken this interest and investment even further, opting to wholly restructure its educational model around the integration of AI, and in doing so, hoping to lead the way in how automation can be proactively harnessed within academic spaces. Regardless of discipline, be it interior design, interactive design or illustration, LABASAD is favouring a hybrid split of traditional and AI-forward practice. 

Beyond a skills-based exercise, the integration of AI within its programmes hopes to calm creatives’ concerns over the arcane technology by championing its supporting role in creativity, rather than an act of replacement. Adjacently, LABASAD is acutely aware of the wider industry’s adoption and sees its integration as responding to the market’s needs for experts in the field. Students exiting the master’s programmes can be better set up to harness generative tools and algorithms whilst, equally, being able to think critically about the latter. In theory, by freeing up busy work and streamlining certain technical processes, the practice of graduating creatives will centre more greatly around concept, creativity and strategy. 

The most significant change in LABASAD’s curriculum is on the Graphic Design course, encapsulating the institution’s newfound approach, which is now split into three pathways: Online Master in Principles of Graphic Design, Online Master in Graphic and Digital Design, and Online Masters in Brand Design. Targeted at different levels, with Online Master in Principles of Graphic Design being aimed at more foundational levels and their Online Master in Brand Design for more strategy-led creatives, each pathway has its own distinct flavour of AI. For example, in their Online Master in Principles of Graphic Design, AI is encouraged in students’ experimental endeavours, whilst Online Master in Brand Design favours the technology for strategic and market research.

LABASAD’s arguably avant-garde academic approach is already underway, and, although its adoption of AI is unwavering, it’s also optimistic. Whilst its classes are remote, they are always conducted live by an in-industry practitioner, who’s there both to impart their wisdom and encourage students to conscientiously utilise automation – cementing the technology as load-bearing, not supplanting.