Lynn Schenk, HBS Business and Environmental Initiatives Director
Just before nearly two feet of snow blanketed the Harvard Business School (HBS) campus, a group of HBS MBA students gathered in Aldrich Hall for the Accelerated Intensive Program (SIP), AI, and Climate Change: Unlocking Business Opportunities. The new SIP, led by Professor Mike Toffel and Senior Lecturer John Mulliken, was one of 10 free, non-credit, four-day elective courses attended by more than 675 students on campus that week.
Drawing on their academic and professional expertise in business strategy and operations, climate change, and the AI opportunity environment, Mr. Toffel and Mr. Mulliken assembled nearly 30 guest speakers for a series of engaging discussions, presentations, and extensive Q+As. These investors, academics, consultants, entrepreneurs, and managers from leading technology companies led students on a journey to discover a wide range of ways to test the potential of AI to have a net positive impact on the climate at an unprecedented accelerated pace.
Professor Tofel said: “We established this SIP to discuss the convergence of two megatrends that will have a significant impact on our students’ careers: AI and climate change. There is growing awareness of the enormous energy demands of the AI revolution, but we believe that AI will help companies become more resilient to the physical manifestations of climate change and identify ways to decarbonize their operations, products, and climate change. There are many business opportunities that are taking advantage of services, and in fact many current businesses don’t get much attention.
Mulliken and Tofel organized the course around three main objectives: (1) Provides basic knowledge about how and why the climate changes, as well as some core AI concepts and terminology. (2) Promote new discoveries by presenting a wide range of roles, technologies, and organizations. (3) enable new connections between students, faculty, and leaders in the field;
The students participated enthusiastically. As Ferhat Gerbi (MBA 2027) said at the beginning of the class, “AI and climate are the zeitgeist of our generation. It’s so fun to see the intersection. I want to see if this is what I want to bet my career on.”
Taking the lead in setting the basic level of climate change and AI
Spencer Glendon, HBS Executive Fellow and founder of Probable Futures, demonstrated how we are entering an era of climate instability, changing the foundations on which business and economics are built, and increasing the need for new analyzes and questions. He asked students to “use AI as a questioner, not a responder.”
Next, HBS Executive Fellow Jen Tulyuk provided an overview of the various forms of AI and highlighted potential opportunity areas for connecting the two topics. Turliuk also previewed the framework he will deliver over the weekend on the “double-edged realities” of AI and climate, where students will learn about different approaches to tackling the energy demands of large-scale computing and data centers and turning this potential liability into a competitive advantage.
This opening context set the tone that the course was designed to help students develop more informed questions with the goal of exploration rather than answers.
New discoveries, new questions
A wide range of experts developing new technologies, roles, or companies made up the quilt of insights provided throughout the week. Sessions focused on applications from SAS to large-scale infrastructure development and everything in between.
Mulliken praised the accomplishments of the comprehensive speaker lineup, saying, “It was remarkable to bring together such a wide range of construction companies under one roof. From startups building autonomy for wildfire suppression and undersea exploration, to large companies optimizing traffic flows at city scale, and even quantum computing, it was great to see how young leaders can leverage the tools of AI and machine learning to make a meaningful impact on the challenge of climate change.”
Guests consistently led the issues they were trying to address. It is the need to accelerate the research and development process of alternative resources. Waste of grid capacity. Discovery or utilization of inefficient resources. Unpredictability of clean water availability. And so on. As students compared these approaches to climate change resilience/adaptation and mitigation/decarbonization from the perspectives of investors, developers, and managers, they raised more questions than answers. The question was, “Did that approach yield a net benefit?” Will the business model work in context? Where does this company sit in the data and information value chain and how can it turn it into a competitive advantage? Exactly the questions MBA students are trained to ask.
A new and lasting community
The students came to this SIP with different ambitions, backgrounds and personal experiences, but all were highly motivated to connect. While SIP content is unique and powerful, including opportunities to experiment with new topics not offered in existing curricula or offered in new ways, it can shine brightest in its potential to form communities around topics.
Climate + AI SIP organizers prioritized connections, starting with an evening gathering at John Mulliken’s home (which included an appearance by his playful golden retriever, Tilly), giving RC and EC students, several Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows, and faculty a chance to mingle. In addition, faculty reserved a dedicated lunch space for Spangler each day, providing opportunities for students to continue conversations with class guests and dig deeper into pressing questions that came up in class. The lunch connections are already inspiring ideas for new independent projects and potential internships and full-time job opportunities, and a new WhatsApp group is active with SIP students looking to increase their connections and conversations.
Just the beginning
This latest climate change-focused SIP affirms HBS’s investment and research into the relationship between two of the most defining topics in the business environment in the coming years, highlighting the urgency to discover the tools and talent that will help society move forward with purpose and speed. With AI tools capable of processing data at unprecedented speeds, it remains to be seen how organizations will deploy these tools and assess their impact. As one student said in the closing session, “I’m skeptical of short-term AI, but some of the applications I saw this week surprised me and made me cautiously optimistic.”
