The Frontier Firm AI Initiative was designed around a simple conviction: the most important questions about AI in business can’t be answered in theory. Listen to this article: On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, senior leaders from across the Frontier Firm AI Initiative came together at Harvard Business School for Journey to the Frontier, an event […]
Exploring how the complexity of large language models acts as a moral safeguard Listen to this article: The standard fear about advanced AI goes something like this: the more sophisticated a system becomes, the better it gets at sounding convincing, reading the room, and manipulating people. A model that can reason step-by-step might not just […]
How companies can overcome the structural frictions that block AI at scale Listen to this article: AI has entered the enterprise faster than most previous waves of technology, reshaping expectations about speed, productivity, and decision-making. Yet adoption alone does not produce transformation. The Frontier Firm Initiative (FFI), a joint effort between the Digital Data Design […]
New research reveals that firms are playing a game of catch-up they didn’t even know they were losing Listen to this article: Leaders know they must innovate to survive, and they don’t make decisions in a vacuum: they watch rivals, draw inferences, and position themselves accordingly. But what happens when their picture of the competitive […]
New research reveals just how convincingly AI mimics humans Listen to this article: Alan Turing’s original “imitation game,” proposed in 1950, had an elegant simplicity: a human judge conducts a text-based conversation with two hidden parties—one human, one machine—and tries to guess which is which. Today, the question Turing posed has quietly expanded into territory […]
A new cross-domain benchmark reveals how the leading AI research tools perform on real-world production tasks Listen to this article: Two AI-generated research reports land on your desk before a major decision. Both are polished, confidently written, and well-structured, but they reach different conclusions. Which one do you trust, and how would you even begin […]
This series introduces D^3 Associates Program projects which aim to answer important questions at the intersection of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in business and society. This article shares insights from Elie Ofek, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School and Julian De Freitas, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School who […]
This series introduces D^3 Associates Program projects which aim to answer important questions at the intersection of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in business and society. This article shares insights from Dr. Livia Alfonsi, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, whose research studies labor markets and the transition from school to work, […]
This series introduces D^3 Associates Program projects which aim to answer important questions at the intersection of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in business and society. This article shares insights from Alex Chan, Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School who is pursuing research on the […]
How to design AI adoption so decision makers can say yes without self-sabotage Lots of organizations can green-light AI. Far fewer can absorb it. That gap, between excitement and real, embedded use, keeps showing up even when ROI is compelling and leadership is visibly supportive. New research from D^3 Frontier Firm affiliate Shunyuan Zhang and […]