We live in an age where the call for transparent or “Explainable AI” (XAI) has never been louder. Businesses agree, with 85% believing transparency is critical to winning consumer trust. [1] Given this consensus, it seems reasonable to assume that when an explanation for a high-stakes AI decision is available, people will naturally seek it […]
What happens when the same technology powering a customer service chatbot becomes a daily companion for someone losing their memory? In the new Nature Mental Health Comment article, “AI Companions for Dementia,” Julian De Freitas, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Associate at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard (D^3), […]
For decades, the business conversation around climate change has been focused on how to manage, mitigate, and withstand the risks and downsides. But what if there’s a more important story about opportunity that we’ve been missing? In the new article, “Tracking Business Opportunities for Climate Solutions Using AI in Regulated Accounting Reports,” published in Nature […]
What if we treated mental health the way we treated physical fitness—not waiting for a crisis, but building strength as a habit? The new working paper “AI for Proactive Mental Health: A Longitudinal, Multi-Institutional Trial,” by a team of authors including Julian De Freitas, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Associate […]
Executives rarely doubt AI’s potential anymore, but many are quietly unsure of their organization’s ability to make it pay off. If you’ve poured time and money into AI pilots and yet the bottom line barely moves, you’re not alone. In the new HBR article “Overcoming the Organizational Barriers to AI Adoption,” Jin Li, Feng Zhu—head […]
Harvard Business School faculty, in collaboration with Microsoft and its clients, will study human-AI work, publish evidence-based blueprints, and deliver custom workshops for executives to rapidly reinvent global businesses as Frontier Firms; Eli Lilly and Company, EY, Lumen Technologies, and Nestlé among 14 organizations in the inaugural cohort. BOSTON, November 18, 2025 – Faculty at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard today […]
As AI systems increasingly outperform humans across a range of tasks, the economic logic seems clear: more capable, more cost-effective AI should lead to widespread automation. The new Harvard Business School working paper, “Performance of Principle: Resistance to Artificial Intelligence in the U.S. Labor Market,” co-authored by Simon Friis, postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory for […]
Imagine you’ve asked ChatGPT to analyze financial data for a critical business decision. Something about its calculations seems off, so you push back, but instead of acknowledging limitations, the AI doubles down by presenting elaborate justifications with data points and reassuring language. At this point, has the AI won you over? This isn’t a hypothetical […]
Will artificial intelligence widen the gap between your best and worst performers, or will it be the great equalizer? A new paper, “Automation Experiments and Inequality,” from Kyle Myers, Principal Investigator at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) within the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard (D^3), and Seth Benzell at Chapman University, […]
Picture this: you receive a well-crafted, deeply understanding message about a personal struggle you’ve shared. It acknowledges your emotions, offers thoughtful support, and demonstrates genuine care. Now imagine learning that response came from an AI chatbot, not another human. Would that change how you felt about the interaction? As AI technology grows more sophisticated, LLMs […]
