Harvard Business School faculty are enhancing the school’s signature case method by integrating artificial intelligence simulations, avatars, and live exercises into the classroom. This is an expansion of the school’s AI push, which now goes beyond a single required course.
The initiative builds on data science and AI for Leaders, a first-year required course that HBS introduced last year. However, the integration of AI has since spread across flagship classes in Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Organizational Behavior, reshaping the way students prepare for and participate in case discussions.
“There are a lot of live AI case exercises that we have built and brought into our classes,” HBS professor Mitchell B. Weiss said, describing the “AI-based simulations, AI-based avatars, kind of AI-based buildings” currently being used in classrooms.
According to HBS Professor Iavor I. Bojinov, students pursuing a master’s degree in business administration have access to an extensive suite of AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Harvard AI Sandbox, Claude, Claude Code, Lovable, Julius AI, Manus, and Gamma.
This technology has changed the dynamics of case discussions. HBS professor Todd Lensman cited AI tools available outside the classroom and said students are now arriving with a higher fundamental understanding of what the case is about.
“We’re coming into the classroom with the understanding, in a sense, that our students have a higher baseline or a different baseline than we ever expected,” Lensman said.
Weiss said dynamicity is what gives the case method its strength, and argued that while AI is better at conveying information and written assignments, live questions are still important for education.
“If you’re doing what you’ve been doing before, which is what we’ve been doing, and you’re asking deep, relevant questions live, then this way of teaching is actually very appropriate for these times,” Weiss said.
HBS Professor Lembrand M. Koning said students are bringing more advanced foundational knowledge from AI into the classroom, sparking discussion.
“This increases our ability to have really rich discussions and get to the core business ideas that we love to talk about at HBS,” he said.
Koning also described efforts to use AI in class preparation itself as a way to help students gain a deeper understanding of the content before entering the class.
“One of the things we started exploring is how we can leverage AI in the lesson preparation process, so that students can engage more deeply with the material rather than just using it to cheat or just summarize or not read,” he said.
“We have a lot of faculty members who are really excited,” Corning added.
But he cautioned against all-AI curriculum.
“Make sure to keep the history lessons. Anything else that doesn’t have AI, do it the old-fashioned way. I think both work very well,” he said.
HBS’s required AI courses have also evolved. Bozinov said that after the release of ChatGPT reshaped the field, the course was restructured into three modules covering AI-driven transformation of workplace operations, AI-enabled business models, and AI safety and sovereignty issues.
“ChatGPT came along and really started to show how this could lead to fundamentally new business and operating models,” Bozinoff said.
In a February video posted to the school’s Facebook account, HBS Dean Srikant M. Deter framed broad curriculum changes in preparation for a business environment being reshaped by digital transformation.
“Leaders not only need to understand how to use AI, how to scale AI, and how to manage AI, but they also need to understand how to think about issues like privacy, how to think about security issues,” he said.
HBS has a history of early adoption. In fall 2023, the school provided all MBA students with access to the latest version of ChatGPT. Weiss said this step was not taken at any other major business school at the time. He also drew parallels to 1984, when HBS was one of the first business schools to require all freshmen to own a personal computer.
“It’s very similar to what happened in the ’80s when PCs came out,” Weiss says. “I believe we were the only major business school to require Ivy students to own a personal computer in 1984.”
Corning said AI proficiency is no longer optional for MBA candidates entering the labor market.
“Right now, if you want to get a job out of an MBA program, you need to know how to use these AI tools, because they’re already part of the interview process at all the big tech companies, and increasingly in private equity as well,” he said.
Still, teachers said the most important skill the expanded curriculum aims to develop is judgment. In particular, Weiss called this the “most important mission” at HBS.
“Our mission remains to educate leaders who make a difference in the world,” he added. “Educating leaders who can continue to do so, especially in a changing and evolving world.”
—Staff writer Siena G. Devine Guzmán can be reached at: [email protected]. X Follow her at @sienadevnee.
—Staff writer Katherine E. Chavez can be reached at: [email protected]. X Follow her at @KatharineEC7.
