Written by Betsy Verecki
November 12, 2025
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way organizations operate, from how they analyze data and make decisions to how they serve and collaborate with customers. And as its use accelerates, today’s leaders have pressing questions about ethics, privacy, security, and environmental impact.
Dartmouth and Tuck’s network of AI runs incredibly deep inside the world’s best companies, and bringing these perspectives together in one room is powerful.
— Patrick Wheeler, Executive Director, Tuck Digital Strategy Center
The Dartmouth AI Conference, led by the Grassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategy at the Tuck School of Business, was created to help leaders understand this moment. Now in its third year, the Silicon Valley-based event brought together hundreds of alumni, students, and industry professionals to discuss the opportunities and complexities of AI in business and society.
“We created this conference to create a forum where people can deeply engage not only in what they can do, but in what they are responsible for,” said Patrick Wheeler, executive director of the Center for Digital Strategy. “The Dartmouth-Tuck network of AI runs incredibly deep inside the world’s best companies, and bringing these perspectives together in one room is powerful.”
This year’s program featured alumni and industry leaders developing AI strategies across a variety of sectors. J Lewis T’11, startup founder and product lead at LinkedIn, and Thiago Teodoro T’11, senior director at CrowdStrike, shared their perspectives on product adoption and security. Google Director Brent Dance T’13 moderated a conversation about building an AI-first organization. Other speakers include Mike Breen D’02 from Anthropic, Josh Marcuse D’04, director of strategic initiatives and responsible AI lead at Google Public Sector, Nasim Afsar, former chief health officer at Oracle, and Hany Farid, professor at the University of California, Berkeley and chief scientific officer at GetReal Security.
Throughout the day, students and alumni participated in sessions focused on how artificial intelligence is reshaping business, technology, and society. |Photo credit: Harry Hariant
Keynote speaker Chris O’Neill T’01, CEO of GrowthLoop, brought lessons from a career spanning Google, Evernote, and early-stage growth companies. In a conversation with Alva Taylor, senior associate dean for Tuck Executive Education and faculty director of the Center for Digital Strategy, O’Neill reflected on how past technology changes compare to the current moment. “I graduated in 2001, so I saw the dot-com wave before and after,” O’Neal said. “History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. The pace of change through AI is so fast that it is embedded in almost every part of our personal and professional lives.”
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. The pace of change caused by AI is so fast that it is integrated into almost every part of our personal and professional lives.
— Chris O’Neill T’01, GrowthLoop CEO
Panel discussions throughout the day explored real-world implications and tensions. The cybersecurity session featured Matt Knight D’11, Th’12, vice president at OpenAI, and Hany Farid, who investigated how image and video manipulation is reshaping public trust in information. Another conversation focused on healthcare innovation. Julie Skaff T’08, former COO of Viz.ai, discussed how AI can help address talent shortages and improve diagnosis and care delivery. “We are facing an aging population and a shortage of health care providers,” Skaff said. “AI will be an important part of bridging that gap.” Environmental considerations also emerged as a major theme. “This year, the energy usage and carbon footprint of large-scale AI models has been exposed like never before,” Wheeler noted. “The conversation has shifted from ‘What can we do with this?’ to ‘What should we do with it and how do we manage cost and risk?’
At Tuck, we integrate AI into teaching, learning, and research in purposeful and practical ways. Instructors are incorporating AI into coursework through exercises that ask students to analyze, refine, or challenge AI-generated output, and some courses are using custom chatbots trained on course material to help students test decisions and explore alternatives. Tuck also offers a series of courses and executive programs focused on AI, data-driven decision-making, and ethics. Tuck is also the first higher education institution to enter into a site-wide agreement with OpenAI, providing all students, faculty, and professional staff colleagues with access to advanced AI tools for experimentation and responsible use.
Julie Skaff T’08, former COO of Viz.ai, will speak on the healthcare panel about how AI is transforming diagnosis, patient engagement, and care delivery. |Photo credit: Harry Hariant
The conference, held in partnership with Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, Thayer School of Engineering, and Geisel School of Medicine, reflects a campus-wide effort to bring together leading voices in business, technology, and policy to better understand and navigate this transformative moment in AI. Next year’s event will be held again in Silicon Valley on Friday, October 16, 2026. The event commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Dartmouth Artificial Intelligence Summer Research Project in 1956, when the term “artificial intelligence” was first coined, and will advance understanding of the impact of AI on business and society, as well as celebrate Dartmouth’s role as the birthplace of AI.
