Publications

March 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort

In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Talent; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Cybersecurity; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Recruitment; Resignation and Termination; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Europe; United States

26 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

How Cellophane Changed the Way We Shop for Food

marketed the idea of better-selling-through-cellophane, releasing several self-funded studies on the efficacy of visual marketing. “DuPont’s research concluded that 85 percent of all food purchase was done by the eye,” View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Retail; Advertising

11 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Paradoxical Quest to Make Food Look 'Natural' With Artificial Dyes

Storie-Johnson “Today, we tend to view color as an ingredient,” says Ai Hisano, the Harvard-Newcomen Fellow in Business History at Harvard Business School. Hisano is author of the HBS working paper,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Nov 2024
Book

Building the Road to 'Small Business Utopia' with AI and Fintech

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from chapter one of Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, written by Karen G. Mills, senior fellow at Harvard Business School. The second edition was published in 2024 View Details

Keywords: by Karen G. Mills; Financial Services

December 2023 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Monsters in the Machine? Tackling the Challenge of Responsible AI

By: Paul M. Healy and Debora L. Spar

In November of 2022, the small tech company OpenAI released ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot which quickly captured the public’s imagination—becoming the world’s fastest-growing consumer application within months of its release. Though observers from across... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technology Adoption; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technology Industry; United States; European Union; China

2023
Working Paper

Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality

By: Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, Ethan Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine C. Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon and Karim R. Lakhani

The public release of Large Language Models (LLMs) has sparked tremendous interest in how humans will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accomplish a variety of tasks. In our study conducted with Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, we examine... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; AI and Machine Learning; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement

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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

2024
Working Paper

Old Moats for New Models: Openness, Control, and Competition in Generative AI

By: Pierre Azoulay, Joshua L. Krieger and Abhishek Nagaraj

Drawing insights from the field of innovation economics, we discuss the likely competitive environment shaping generative AI advances. Central to our analysis are the concepts of appropriability—whether firms in the industry are able to control the knowledge generated... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Open Source Distribution; Policy

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07 May 2020
Research & Ideas

The One Good Thing Caused by COVID-19: Innovation

accommodating an appropriate level of economic activity. Businesses have historically overcome this type of challenge through the introduction of risk-mitigating technologies, which in this pandemic include technologies, business practices, and strategies that improve... View Details

Keywords: by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso

14 Mar 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can AI and Machine Learning Help Park Rangers Prevent Poaching?

Keywords: Re: Brian L. Trelstad; Computer; Information Technology; Technology

Working Paper

AI in Disguise—How AI-generated Ads' Visual Cues Shape Consumer Perception and Performance

By: Yannick Exner, Jochen Hartmann, Oded Netzer and Shunyuan Zhang

Generative AI’s recent advancements in creating content have offered vast potential to transform the advertising industry. This research investigates the impact of generative AI-enabled visual ad creation on real-world advertising effectiveness. For this purpose, we... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Advertising Industry

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July 2024
Article

Chatbots and Mental Health: Insights into the Safety of Generative AI

By: Julian De Freitas, Ahmet Kaan Uğuralp, Zeliha Uğuralp and Stefano Puntoni

Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers. Due to the ‘black box’ nature of the algorithms, it is impossible to predict in advance how these conversations will unfold. Behavioral research provides little insight into potential safety... View Details

Keywords: Autonomy; Chatbots; New Technology; Brand Crises; Mental Health; Large Language Model; AI and Machine Learning; Behavior; Well-being; Technological Innovation; Ethics

November–December 2022
Article

Can AI Really Help You Sell?: It Can, Depending on When and How You Implement It

By: Jim Dickie, Boris Groysberg, Benson P. Shapiro and Barry Trailer

Many salespeople today are struggling; only 57% of them make their annual quotas, surveys show. One problem is that buying processes have evolved faster than selling processes, and buyers today can access a wide range of online resources that let them evaluate products... View Details

Keywords: Sales; AI and Machine Learning; Customers

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2025
Working Paper

The Impact of Input Inaccuracy on Leveraging AI Tools: Evidence from Algorithmic Labor Scheduling

By: Caleb Kwon, Antonio Moreno and Ananth Raman

Are the inputs used by your AI tool correct and up to date? In this paper, we show that the answer to this question: (i) is frequently a “no” in real business contexts, and (ii) has significant implications on the performance of AI tools. In the context of algorithmic... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Employees; Performance Effectiveness

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Forthcoming
Article

Engaging Customers with AI in Online Chats: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Shunyuan Zhang and Das Narayandas

We examine how artificial intelligence (AI) affected the productivity of customer service agents and customer sentiment in online interactions. Collaborating with a meal delivery company, we conducted a randomized field experiment that exploited exogenous variation in... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Efficiency

August 2021 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Intenseye: Powering Workplace Health and Safety with AI (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel and Youssef Abdel Aal

Intenseye was a Turkey-based technology startup that deployed machine learning algorithms to workplace camera feeds in order to identify unsafe worker actions and unsafe working conditions, in order to help improve worker safety. The case describes how Intenseye’s... View Details

Keywords: Privacy; Product Development; Operations; Technological Innovation; Value Creation; Production; Distribution; Safety; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Distribution Industry; Turkey; Middle East; United States

February 2024
Case

ReSpo.Vision: The Kickstart of an AI Sports Revolution

By: Paul A. Gompers, Elena Corsi and Nikolina Jonsson

This case study explores the growth journey of Polish computer vision sports start-up ReSpo.Vision in an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem. By providing 3D data and analysis to soccer clubs, ReSpo.Vision achieved significant milestones with a €1 million seed round, an... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Plan; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Decisions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; Business Strategy; Sports Industry; Technology Industry; Poland; Europe

Article

Use of Crowd Innovation to Develop an Artificial Intelligence-Based Solution for Radiation Therapy Targeting

By: Raymond H. Mak, Michael G. Endres, Jin Hyun Paik, Rinat A. Sergeev, Hugo Aerts, Christopher L. Williams, Karim R. Lakhani and Eva C. Guinan

Importance: Radiation therapy (RT) is a critical cancer treatment, but the existing radiation oncologist work force does not meet growing global demand. One key physician task in RT planning involves tumor segmentation for targeting, which requires substantial... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; AI Algorithms; Health Care and Treatment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; AI and Machine Learning