IIM Kozhikode and Emeritus Announce Chief Product & AI-Driven Strategy Officer Programme to Build AI-First Product Leaders

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India – Business Wire India As product leadership becomes a critical differentiator in a rapidly evolving digital economy, organisations are seeking professionals who can merge product vision with a data-driven and AI-first strategy. According to the Products That Count report (2025), 70% of Fortune 1000 companies are expected to have a Chief Product Officer by 2027, underscoring the growing importance of product leadership in shaping business outcomes. To meet this demand, the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK), in collaboration with Emeritus, has announced the Chief Product & AI-Driven Strategy Officer Programme, featuring an online certificate course by Kellogg Executive Education. This is an 11-month advanced leadership journey designed to empower senior product professionals with AI-enabled strategic capabilities.

The CPAIO programme is designed for senior product professionals, business leaders, and entrepreneurs looking to scale their organisations through product-led and AI-enabled strategies. It is ideal for Chief Product Officers, Product Heads, Product Strategy Consultants, Product-Led Founders, and functional heads in Product, Engineering, and Marketing, who aspire to strengthen cross-functional leadership and deliver measurable growth through AI-driven innovation.

Speaking on the programme, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, said, “For the ambitious, future-thinking product leader, this programme expands many horizons from a bird’s-eye view of product drivers in a dynamic global economy to hands-on, data-driven product execution. By blending product strategy, product finance, advanced analytics, and AI-first thinking, we are preparing CPO-calibre leaders who can deliver sustained product growth.” Avnish Singhal, Executive Vice President, Head India & APAC, Emeritus, added, “Organisations need product leaders who can translate AI capability into business outcomes. The CPAIO programme combines IIM Kozhikode’s deep academic rigour with Emeritus’s delivery excellence to equip leaders for product-led growth in the age of AI.” The Chief Product & AI-Driven Strategy Officer (CPAIO) Programme is an 11-month blended learning programme, combining live online sessions by IIM Kozhikode faculty, pre-recorded sessions by Kellogg Executive Education, and a 3-day in-campus immersion at IIM Kozhikode. The curriculum provides a holistic foundation across three pillars: Product Strategy & Vision, Product-Led Growth & Innovation, and Product Leadership. It integrates core disciplines, including strategy, design thinking, product finance and control, lifecycle management, and AI-first product innovation.

Participants will explore modules such as AI-Driven Marketing and Growth, Generative AI and Agentic AI Applications, Product Lifecycle and Rapid Prototyping, Cloud & DevOps for Product Leaders, Ethics, Governance, and Legal Considerations for AI Products. A dedicated Kellogg Executive Education online certificate in AI Strategies for Business Transformation complements the curriculum, providing a global perspective on how AI enhances customer experience, operations, and strategic decision-making.

Programme highlights include 90 hours of synchronous online sessions, 15 hours of live IIMK In-campus sessions, 16 hours of Kellogg sessions, two business simulations (Product Strategy and Leadership and Change Management) and a capstone project. Participants will also attend a three-day campus immersion at IIM Kozhikode for in-person learning and networking.

Through this programme, participants will be able to: • Design and lead product strategies that integrate AI and data capabilities across the product lifecycle • Translate financial and analytical frameworks into accountable, outcome-based product decisions • Apply AI-first approaches, including LLMs, NLP, RAG, and Computer Vision to accelerate ideation and go-to-market strategies • Lead teams through business simulations and real-world case applications • Build ethical, responsible, and scalable AI-led product systems • Strengthen professional credibility with credentials from IIM Kozhikode and Kellogg Executive Education, and gain eligibility for IIM Kozhikode Executive Alumni Status Programme Details • Start Date: December 30, 2025 • Duration: 11 months • Format: Live online sessions (IIMK) pre-recorded certificate course (Kellogg) 3-day campus immersion (IIM Kozhikode) • Eligibility: Graduate/Diploma holder (10 2 3) with a minimum of 8 years of work experience • Programme Fee: INR 5,45,000 GST • Certification: Upon successful completion of the programme, participants will receive a certificate from IIM Kozhikode and a Certificate from Kellogg Executive Education For more details, visit the programme page here.

About the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Started in 1997 with its Post Graduate Programme (PGP), the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) is on a high growth trajectory today, offering a wide range of academic programmes in the field of management education. These include the Fellow Programme in Management, Executive PG Programmes, Management Development Programmes and Faculty Development Programs. IIMK set up a Satellite campus at Info Park, Kochi, in 2013, dedicated to Executive Education. IIMK has also the unique distinction of launching a PhD (Practice Track) programme for working professionals besides bringing in new dynamic programmes such as the one-year Post Graduate programme in Business Leadership (2019) MBA in Finance and MBA in Liberal Studies & Management (2020). The institute is also home to IIMK LIVE a first-of-its-kind start-up incubation programme and the Indian Business Museum.

IIMK is ranked 3rd as per NIRF India Rankings 2025: Management. The institute also features regularly among the top global institutes for its flagship MBA (PGP) and EMBA programme (EPGP) in the QS World University Rankings. The institute has leapfrogged 100 spots to be placed in the Top 151-200 Institutes in Business & Management Studies globally, as per the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024. IIM Kozhikode is also globally accredited by EQUIS (EFMD) and AMBA (UK) and is on the verge of a triple-accreditation crown.

IIM Kozhikode also made its debut in the prestigious Financial Times Rankings in 2023 and was recently ranked #76 among the top-80 open-enrolment executive program providers globally for the year 2025. The feat has further consolidated the 29-year-old IIM’s footing in an exclusive list of the foremost providers of executive education in the world. The institute had also entered in global top-100 at Rank #69 for FT Masters in Management (MIM) 2025 Rankings, for its full time MBA programme. IIM Kozhikode has successfully delivered close to 1300 MDP programmes over the past two decades, training more than 41,000 participants from 150 organisations, which also includes several Fortune 500 companies in the process.

About Emeritus Emeritus offers customised and open programs in India, Singapore, Dubai and other global locations in collaboration with IIM Calcutta Executive Education, IIM Lucknow Executive Education, ISB Executive Education, Harvard Business School (HBS), MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, Kellogg Executive Education, Berkeley Executive Education, and Wharton Executive Education, amongst other leading Institutions. Our world-class executive education programs, facilitated by eminent program experts, provide an immersive learning experience integrated with actionable insights and practical business applications and are delivered in a range of formats: in-class, online, and blended programs. The Emeritus Group has more than 1,750 employees globally and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Singapore, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London, and Dubai. The company is backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Leeds Illuminate, Prosus Ventures, GSV Ventures, Peak XV, Bertelsmann, CPPIB, Accel and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. For more information, please visit https://emeritus.org/ (Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with Business Wire India and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.).

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