Firms were built to control scarce knowledge. AI is testing that premise from the inside.
This article continues our coverage of the 2026 Open and User Innovation (OUI) Conference, where HBS Professor Raffaella Sadun presented the day two keynote “AI and the Organization of Knowledge.” Sadun describes herself as an organizational economist, so her focus shifted away from what AI does to individual tasks and toward a larger question: What happens when expertise itself becomes easier to capture, distribute, and apply across an organization?
Why This Matters
The firms that capture AI’s value must learn how to reorganize around a new reality in which expertise is more scalable, but coordination, motivation, and execution remain distinctly organizational challenges. Leaders should identify where expertise currently sits, test where AI can transmit it without degrading judgment or threatening security, and watch for cross-functional weak links that turn local acceleration into enterprise friction. Her closing note to researchers translates well to the C-suite: this era rewards those willing to run real experiments and wait for the results, encouraging managers themselves to become experiments and scientists within their firms.
Link to the HBS AI Institute Insight Article
Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with HBS AI Institute news and research