Updates

The Real Barrier to AI Agent Adoption Isn’t Technology — It’s Psychology

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On April 22, the AI Horizons webinar series from Wharton Human-AI Research (WHAIR) examined why AI agent adoption keeps stalling, and what the research says leaders should do differently. In this episode, Stefano Puntoni, faculty co-director of WHAIR and the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, joined Thomas McKinlay, founder of Science Says, to present the Wharton Blueprint for AI Agent Adoption. Drawing on academic research and expert interviews with leaders at Google, ServiceNow, Zapier, and Workato, the two unpacked the psychological barriers slowing adoption — and the design strategies that can overcome them. …Read More

How to Build an Organization Where Creativity Actually Thrives

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On April 16, 2026, Wharton Human-AI Research (WHAIR) continued its AI Horizons webinar series with a conversation on one of the most pressing challenges in business today: how to build organizations that are genuinely creative in an age of AI. Host Kartik Hosanagar, faculty co-director of WHAIR, was joined by Yoram (Jerry) Wind, Lauder Professor Emeritus and professor of marketing at the Wharton School, and Margherita Pagani, director of the SKEMA Center for Artificial Intelligence.…Read More

Are We Being Deskilled by AI? What Business Leaders Need to Know

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On April 9, Wharton Human-AI Research (WHAIR) launched their spring 2026 AI Horizons webinar series dedicated to exploring the human side of artificial intelligence. In the first installment, WHAIR faculty co-director Robert (Bob) Meyer sat down with Shiri Melumad, a Wharton marketing professor and leading researcher on how smart technology shapes human psychology and behavior.…Read More

When Better AI Makes Oversight Harder

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New research from Hamsa Bastani, Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, and Gérard Cachon, Fred R. Sullivan Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School reveals a counterintuitive challenge: as AI systems become more reliable, organizations may find it increasingly difficult, and costly, to motivate humans to oversee them effectively.…Read More

GenAI in the Enterprise: From Hype to Human Capital

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Generative AI has rapidly shifted from experimentation to everyday utility in large enterprises. In the final installment of our Fall 2025 AI Horizons webinar series, Wharton Human-AI Research Faculty Co-Directors Stefano Puntoni and Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe joined Jeremy Korst, Partner at GBK Collective, to share findings from the 2025 AI Adoption Report: GenAI Fast-Tracks into the Enterprise. Here are the key takeaways from their talk.…Read More

How Disruptive Will Generative AI Be?

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In the latest AI Horizons Webinar, hosted by Wharton Human AI Research (WHAIR), Michael G. Jacobides, Sir Donald Gordon Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at London Business School, joined Stefano Puntoni, Faculty Co-Director of WHAIR to discuss how generative AI is reshaping industries, business models, and organizations. Here are the key takeaways from their discussion.…Read More

Moving Beyond AI Experimentation to Enterprise Value

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At the third annual Wharton Business and Generative AI Conference in San Francisco, keynote speaker Lan Guan, Chief AI Officer at Accenture, shared her perspective on the evolving AI landscape and what separates companies merely experimenting from those capturing real enterprise value. Drawing on decades of consulting experience and thousands of enterprise AI projects, she highlighted where business leaders should focus their attention as AI adoption accelerates.…Read More

Reskilling the Workforce for AI: Why Domain Experts Need Algorithmic Skills

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AI is no longer just the territory of engineers and data scientists. Increasingly, the most valuable use cases happen when business professionals – marketers, healthcare workers, financial analysts, and managers – use AI tools themselves. That’s the central message of new research by Prasanna “Sonny” Tambe, professor at Wharton and Faculty Co-Director of Wharton Human-AI Research. His paper in Management Science, Reskilling the Workforce for AI: Domain Expertise and Algorithmic Literacy, shows that firms capture more value from AI when algorithmic expertise is distributed across domain experts rather than concentrated in IT departments.…Read More

How AI Shapes Creativity: Expanding Potential or Narrowing Possibilities?

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On September 25, 2025, Wharton Human-AI Research (WHAIR) hosted an AI Horizons webinar exploring how AI impacts the quality and diversity of creative ideas. The discussion was led by Kartik Hosanagar, Faculty Co-Director of Wharton Human-AI Research, joined by Anil Doshi, Associate Professor, UCL School of Management, Oliver Hauser, Professor of Economics, University of Exeter, and Léonard Boussioux, Assistant Professor, University of Washington. Each of the speakers drew from recent research they conducted, and together their panel examined how AI influences innovation across industries, highlighting both opportunities and risks.…Read More

AI Horizons: Safety, Ethics, and Data Rights in the Age of AI

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In conversation with Lynn Wu, Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at the Wharton school, Carnegie Mellon University professor and AI researcher Beibei Li explained how data, especially human-labeled data, drives AI progress, and why today’s data markets are both unfair and unsustainable. Here are the key lessons for business leaders.…Read More