The Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard is now the Harvard Business School AI Institute.

Generative AI and Business Technology

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Out of the Loop?

The case for rethinking when humans should review AI output Listen to this article: We tend to treat human oversight in AI adoption as the responsible choice. But as organizations increase their reliance on AI, the feasibility of that plan falters: if AI is deployed at scale, there will simply be too many touchpoints to […]

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Does Your AI Work? Test It Where It Lives

A new framework argues that AI evaluation should start where AI actually gets used. Listen to this article: Real-world AI use is messy. Uneven user expertise, shifting workflows, institutional dynamics, and a range of other factors all have an effect on what we get out of AI, but we also want to have a clear […]

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Algorithms of Imagination

A new framework for creating original ideas with AI Listen to this article: “Give me 20 headlines.” “Create 30 research questions.” “Generate 50 business ideas.” Beneath these requests lies an intuitive assumption about large language models: that originality emerges automatically from quantity. If an AI can generate ideas faster than humans, then perhaps creativity becomes […]

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AI is Giving Workers More Focus Time. Now What?

A six-month, cross-industry randomized trial shows how generative AI is reshaping work. Listen to this article: The promise of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow theory” is that people do their best work when they can enter a flow state, or stay deeply engaged in a challenging task without constant interruption. Yet the structure of knowledge work […]

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Less Headcount, More Valuation: How AI-Native Firms Change the Game

Firms built around AI are scaling knowledge work without the knowledge workers. Listen to this article: For several years now the idea that AI will transform organizations has been less a finding than a forecast repeated in keynotes, board decks, and earnings calls with a confidence that outpaced the evidence. The new working paper, “AI-Native […]

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The Internet is Eating Itself, and AI is Holding the Fork

When AI summarizes the web instead of sending you to it, the economics of online information quietly unravel. Listen to this article: AI search results like Google’s AI Overview are easy to like. Instead of dodging ads, closing pop-ups, scanning a half-dozen pages, and stitching together an answer yourself, you can often get a speedy […]

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Stop Trading Trust for Traffic

New research shows why optimizing content for attention can quietly push it off strategy. Listen to this article: When businesses ask AI to write “on brand,” they’re activating far more than a style guide. Brand voice involves a nuanced set of choices about tone, target audience, and what the organization ultimately wants to stand for. […]

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Knowledge Guilds: Who Owns Your Expertise?

New research proposes a framework to give workers a stake in the AI systems built on their labor. Listen to this article: Data portability has often been presented as a way to reduce the control digital platforms exert through exclusive access to user data. In principle: if Meta, Alphabet, Spotify, or another platform holds your […]

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Here’s What People Actually Do With ChatGPT

Data-driven insights on the shift from cool tool to global utility Listen to this article: If you look at the headlines about tools like Claude Code and OpenAI Codex, or hear about programmers using LLMs to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency, you might think that everyone is starting to use AI to write computer code, […]

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The AI Race Goes Global

What China’s “diffusion-forward” strategy reveals about technology, production, and who wins in the AI economy Listen to this article: The New York Times recently reported that in Washington, the AI question focuses on whether the government should review powerful models before they are released. But on the other side of the globe, China is asking […]

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