Harvard Business School Embeds AI Across MBA Curriculum Beyond Single Course
Harvard Business School is integrating artificial intelligence simulations, avatars, and live exercises into case discussions across multiple core classes-an expansion beyond its required first-year AI course that changes how students prepare for and participate in classroom work.
The integration now spans marketing, entrepreneurship, and organizational behavior courses. HBS professor Mitchell B. Weiss described "AI-based simulations, AI-based avatars, a sort of AI-based building" deployed in classrooms alongside the case method, the school's signature teaching approach.
MBA students have access to eight AI platforms: ChatGPT, Harvard AI Sandbox, Claude, Claude Code, Lovable, Julius AI, Manus, and Gamma, according to HBS professor Iavor I. Bojinov.
Students Arrive With Higher Baseline Knowledge
The shift has changed case discussion dynamics. Students now come to class with deeper familiarity with case material through AI tools available outside the classroom, said HBS professor Todd Lensman.
Rather than weakening instruction, this trend strengthens the case method's core strength: live questioning. Weiss said AI excels at information transfer and written assignments, but real-time questioning remains essential to teaching.
"If what you were doing before is asking deep and proper questions live, then this teaching method is actually very suitable for these days," Weiss said.
HBS professor Rembrand M. Koning said the higher baseline knowledge has sharpened discussions. "It just heightens our ability to have really rich discussions and sort of get to the core business ideas that we love talking about here at HBS," he said.
Using AI in Class Preparation
Faculty are also using AI to deepen preparation itself. Koning described efforts to push students into material more thoroughly before class arrives, rather than using AI as a shortcut.
"One of the things that we started to explore is what are ways we can use AI in the process of preparation for class, so that students aren't using it to just cheat, or just to summarize or not read but to engage more deeply with the material," Koning said.
Koning cautioned against an all-AI curriculum. "Let's make sure we keep some history classes, right? And other things where there's no AI, we're going to do it old school. I think both really work well together," he said.
The Required AI Course Evolved After ChatGPT
HBS's mandatory Data Science and AI for Leaders course, introduced last year, was restructured after ChatGPT's release reshaped the field. The course now covers three modules: how AI transforms workplace tasks, AI-enabled business models, and AI safety and sovereignty questions.
"ChatGPT came out, and it really started to show us how this is leading to fundamentally new business and operating models," Bojinov said.
HBS Dean Srikant M. Datar framed the curricular shift as preparation for business leaders in a digitally transformed world. "Leaders will both need to understand how to use AI, how to scale AI, how to govern AI, but also how to think about issues like privacy, how do you think about issues of security," he said.
HBS's History of Early Adoption
The school has a track record of early technology adoption. In fall 2023, HBS provided all MBA students access to the latest ChatGPT version-a move Weiss said no other leading business school made at the time.
The parallel runs to 1984, when HBS was among the first business schools to require incoming students to own personal computers. "It was very parallel to something that happened in the '80s, when the PC showed up," Weiss said.
AI Proficiency Now Required for Employment
Knowing how to use AI tools is no longer optional for MBA graduates entering the job market. Koning said employers across tech, consulting, and private equity already test AI proficiency in interviews.
"Right now, if you want to get a job out of the 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, increasingly consulting, even in private equity," Koning said.
Judgment Remains the Core Mission
Faculty said the expanded curriculum aims to develop one skill above all: judgment. Weiss called it "our most highest important task" at HBS.
"Our mission remains to educate leaders who make a difference in the world," Weiss said. "Educating leaders who can continue to do that, even in and especially in a changing and evolving world."
Your membership also unlocks:
