The Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard is now the Harvard Business School AI Institute.

Insights

Family feet

Here’s how to build a smarter app that could make working families richer

American workers need a financial tool that knows their story. Most apps fall short. The reality is that working families across the country face a variety of pain points when trying to improve their financial lives. Many experience volatile incomes, for instance, that make it hard to build savings. Others may find themselves shut out […]

A responsibility to judge carefully in the era of prediction decision machines

The past seven years have witnessed the resurgence and perfection of neural networks, the present-day king of prediction machines. It wasn’t always clear that these highly parameterized, flexible methods of machine learning could actually work. While many of the pioneering ideas date back to the 1990s and even 1980s, including those contributed by researchers recognized […]

grocery store overlaid with data

Competing in an AI-driven world

No longer just “cool tech” or an innovative way of doing business, artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from a novelty to a necessity. In their upcoming book Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World, Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani illustrate how the […]

women reflective glass city scene

Tech that helps us understand ourselves

Technology is often designed to provide more efficiency, more ease, and more consumption. A side effect of emphasizing “ease” may be that we miss opportunities. These include chances for self-reflection, deeper connection, defining and creating our own meaning, and building the confidence and motivation to create and consume in ways that are aligned with our […]

Man playing instrument with apple watch on

Connected tech gathers real-time behavioral and physiological data beyond a controlled setting

Everywhere you turn, someone is wearing a Fitbit, Apple Watch, or the newest brand of activity tracker. Wearables are just one type of connected technology that has flooded consumer health markets in recent years, and widespread acceptance of these products has led to the discovery of new ways in which they can be used. Along […]

Cape town, south africa

The future of fintech is … Africa

Fintech has exploded onto the scene of nearly every investor, venture capitalist, traditional finance firm, and smartphone user. Moreover, it has seen a meteoric rise in terms of funding, firm-starts, and general interest worldwide. One illustration of this can be seen by simply looking at the Google search volume for the term Fintech over time […]

Upward view of government building columns

Tech governance shaped by humans

Innovation follows a cyclical nature. The governance of technology, however, is shaped by humans — the ultimate decision makers in how technology is developed, deployed, and managed. Today, after several decades of unfettered innovation, we are witnessing the outcomes of letting tech run its course. Unequivocally, the digital age has improved the lives of citizens […]

Basketball shooting training application

Immersive sports analytics overlays the virtual world onto real life

As you settle into your seat to watch the NBA action on the court below, you take a sip of your beverage and gaze through your augmented reality (AR) device. Players’ names and box scores appear and you watch replays on demand. When your favorite player makes a highlight-reel move, you share the play with […]

Burger product

The vegans are coming, and we might join them

This article originally appeared in The Harvard Gazette.  Some Burger Kings recently introduced a new version of the iconic Whopper with its signature flame-broiled beef patty swapped for a meatless replica that the company claims is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. It’s called the Impossible Whopper, and it’s the latest iteration of the trend of […]

A model of efficiency

Originally published in The Harvard Gazette.  An ambitious retrofit of a pre-1940s building on Harvard’s campus into a living laboratory and energy-positive prototype for ultra-efficiency has opened its doors. HouseZero is intended to address one of the biggest energy problems in the world today — inefficient existing buildings. Its design was driven by the goals […]

Engage With Us

Join Our Community

Ready to dive deeper with the HBS AI Institute? Subscribe to our newsletter, contribute to the conversation and begin to invent the future for yourself, your business and society as a whole.