Harvard Business School faculty this week released a series of new research papers and case studies that squarely confront some of the biggest debates in business today: the hype and reality of AI, the growing influence of AI-generated financial news, geopolitical fragmentation, and the limits of globalization.
Among the most talked about papers is a revised HBS working paper that takes a skeptical but pragmatic perspective on the use of large-scale language models in market research. In “Using LLM for Market Research,” Professor James Brand, Professor Ayelet Israel, and Professor Donald Ngwe conclude that while AI tools may approximate human survey responses, they can also produce inaccurate or “false signature” results when predicting consumer preferences.
The authors argue that LLM is best used as a supplement to human research, rather than a replacement for it. They found that the strongest results were obtained when the model was fine-tuned using prior human survey data from similar product categories and customer groups.
AI may change the way investors read news
Another new working paper from HBS explores how AI-generated summaries are already reshaping investor behavior.
In “Financial Media Generation AI and Investor Processing,” Professor Tony Cho, Professor Allen Huang, Professor Joseph Parsley, and Professor Christina Rennekamp analyze the evolution of AI summaries. wall street journal And we found that articles with AI-generated summaries elicited higher trading volumes and stronger market reactions.
The researchers also take issue with a common concern about AI overviews: that they encourage shallow or skimming reading. Rather, their experiments suggest that summaries may actually improve comprehension and recall of full-text articles and direct investors’ attention to the highlighted information.
The study concludes that AI-generated summaries are becoming “interpretive cues” that shape how investors consume and react to financial news.
Greece’s National AI Strategy
HBS also released a new case study examining how governments seek to leverage AI as part of their national economic strategy.
“Greece’s Great Leap Forward? AI as a Catalyst for Education, Entrepreneurship, and National Prosperity” by George Serafeim, Deborah Spahr, and Nicole Zelasko focuses on the partnership between Greece and OpenAI to bring ChatGPT Edu to Greek secondary schools and launch a startup accelerator supported by OpenAI technology and mentorship.
The case frames AI not just as a productivity tool, but as a potential means to reverse brain drain, modernize education, and accelerate entrepreneurship in countries still trying to rebuild after years of economic instability.
