Publications

Awards

John D. C. Little Award

By: Shunyuan Zhang

Nominated for the 2022 John D. C. Little Award for “Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb” (Marketing Science, September–October 2021) with Nitin Mehta, Param Singh, and Kannan Srinivasan. View Details

11 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

How AI Could Ease the Refugee Crisis and Bring New Talent to Businesses

cultural background, to help families start new lives safely. AI significantly improves matches Algorithms seek to streamline that work. Paulson and Bansak analyzed patterns in two countries that accept... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

20 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

It's No Joke: AI Beats Humans at Making You Laugh

computer-based recommendation technology to help consumers make decisions. Yeomans' findings shed light on the hurdles that AI technology will need to overcome to win over wary consumers. The team enlisted 75 pairs of people, including... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

30 May 2024
Research & Ideas

Racial Bias Might Be Infecting Patient Portals. Can AI Help?

others—deeming some important enough for a physician’s review while routing others to nurses instead, according to the authors. The rise of Gen AI adds urgency Learning how to assess and prioritize inquiries will become more important as... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Health

Accuracy Obsession: Humans Prioritize Immaterial AI Accuracy Over Their Own Compensation — Unless We Educate Them

1. Problem definition: Accuracy isn't everything. In many contexts, high or low sensitivity is more important than overall correctness — and yet, we find that humans prefer accurate algorithms, even to their detriment. Specifically, we identify and address an... View Details

12 Oct 2021
News

AI Can Bring More Equity To The Workplace And Consumer Markets By Implementing These Conditions

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Jill Avery, Ayelet Israeli and Emma von Maur

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details

Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Preference Prediction; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

22 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

How to Make AI 'Forget' All the Private Data It Shouldn't Have

predictions about the world. And now, even though generative AI feels very different from making a simple prediction, at a technical level, that's really what it is. In order to train these predictive systems, you need lots of example... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

how new products or services would perform at various prices or with different characteristics. The machine learning algorithms that might power such a device are, at least for now, incapable of producing such promising results. But what... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

October 2021 (Revised June 2022)
Case

PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion

By: Ayelet Israeli

PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once... View Details

May 2021 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

05 Nov 2024
Research & Ideas

AI Can Help Leaders Communicate, But Can't Make Employees Listen

to replicate the unique characteristics of a specific person’s writing style, says Prithwiraj Choudhury, the Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. “We trained an algorithm to write using... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Information Technology; Technology

2023
Chapter

Marketing Through the Machine’s Eyes: Image Analytics and Interpretability

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Flora Feng and Kannan Srinivasan

he growth of social media and the sharing economy is generating abundant unstructured image and video data. Computer vision techniques can derive rich insights from unstructured data and can inform recommendations for increasing profits and consumer utility—if only the... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Marketing Research; Algorithmic Bias; AI and Machine Learning; Marketing

03 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Confronting Racism in AI 'Creates a Better Future for All of Us'

people in the room to guess what prompts he had provided to the AI tool DALL-E2 to create the image. People in the audience were stumped. After about 40 seconds, Turner—a visiting fellow at HBS’s Institute for the Study of Business in... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis

Teaching Interest

Overview

Paul is primarily interested in teaching data science to management students through the case method. This includes technical topics (programming and statistics) as well as higher-level management issues (digital transformation, data governance, etc.) As a research... View Details

Keywords: A/B Testing; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Algorithm; Algorithm Bias; Algorithmic Bias; Algorithmic Fairness; Algorithms; Analytics; Application Program Interface; Artificial Intelligence; Causality; Causal Inference; Computing; Computers; Data Analysis; Data Analytics; Data Architecture; Data As A Service; Data Centers; Data Governance; Data Labeling; Data Management; Data Manipulation; Data Mining; Data Ownership; Data Privacy; Data Protection; Data Science; Data Science And Analytics Management; Data Scientists; Data Security; Data Sharing; Data Strategy; Data Visualization; Database; Data-driven Decision-making; Data-driven Management; Data-driven Operations; Datathon; Economics Of AI; Economics Of Innovation; Economics Of Information System; Economics Of Science; Forecast; Forecast Accuracy; Forecasting; Forecasting And Prediction; Information Technology; Machine Learning; Machine Learning Models; Prediction; Prediction Error; Predictive Analytics; Predictive Models; Analysis; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; Digital Transformation; Information Management; Digital Strategy; Technology Adoption

November 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

MiDAS: Automating Unemployment Benefits

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In 2015, the state of Michigan considered whether to nominate its Michigan Integrated Data Automated System (MiDAS) for a prestigious state technology award. Launched in 2013 amid severe budget pressures, the $47 million automated fraud detection system was designed to... View Details

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Data-Driven Denim: Financial Forecasting at Levi Strauss

By: Mark Egan

The case examines Levi Strauss’ journey in implementing machine learning and AI into its financial forecasting process. The apparel company partnered with the IT company Wipro in 2017 to develop a machine learning algorithm that could help Levi Strauss forecast its... View Details

Keywords: Investor Relations; Forecasting; Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Apparel; Corporate Finance; Forecasting and Prediction; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Transformation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States