Updates

From Capability to Consequence: The 2026 Business & Generative AI Conference

Angela Duckworth hosts a keynote presentation at the 2026 Wharton Business & Generative AI Conference

On September 9–10, Wharton Human-AI Research (WHAIR) convened academic and industry leaders at Wharton San Francisco for the 2026 Business & Generative AI Conference. Across two days of keynotes, research presentations, poster sessions, and discussion, participants explored an increasingly urgent question: As generative AI grows more capable, how can organizations ensure that it creates meaningful and lasting value?

Dozens of researchers from institutions around the world presented work spanning labor markets, healthcare, teamwork, entrepreneurship, news, marketing, search, personalization, and agentic systems. Three keynote speakers — Faye Iosotaluno, Angela Duckworth, and Ramayya Krishnan — framed that broader conversation from the perspectives of consumer technology, behavioral science, and organizational deployment. Together, they emphasized that AI’s future will be determined not only by what these systems can do, but by the choices people and institutions make about how they are designed and used.…Read More

From Science Fiction to Standard Operating Procedure: Wharton’s Third AI and the Future of Work Conference

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On May 20-21, 2026, Wharton Human-AI Research welcomed scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to campus for its third annual AI and the Future of Work Conference. If the inaugural gathering two years ago framed AI as a transformation on the horizon, this year’s tone made clear the horizon had closed in fast. “A year ago, some of those ideas still felt speculative,” said Nancy Rothbard, Deputy Dean and David Pottruck Professor of Management at the Wharton School during opening remarks, “but today they’re actually shaping how we work, learn, communicate, and make decisions in real time.” …Read More

Why Adding a Human Doesn’t Automatically Make AI Better

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The assumption that humans plus AI will always outperform either alone has become a cornerstone of how organizations are deploying AI today. But what if that assumption is wrong — or at least, far more complicated than we think? In Episode 4 of AI Horizons,  Prasanna “Sonny” Tambe, faculty co-director of Wharton Human AI Research, hosted Gérard Cachon, Fred R. Sullivan Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School, and Alex Moehring, assistant professor at Purdue University’s Daniels School of Business, to examine the real-world friction points in human-AI collaboration. Drawing on empirical research and economic theory, the conversation challenged some of the most widely held beliefs about how humans and AI work together, and offered a more grounded way forward.…Read More

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

A speaker is presenting to a seated audience in a lecture hall. The presentation slide, titled "Reinventing Marketing with Agentic AI," discusses AI-driven marketing benefits like reduction in manual tasks and increased speed to market.

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