Fuqua-AI

Advancing Business Through AI Research & Learning

AI is transforming business, and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business is leading the way. Discover how AI is integrated into research and learning across all areas of business education.

OpenAI and Duke Launch New MetaScience Initiative. Professor Ronnie Chatterji Appointed First Chief Economist of OpenAI.

Duke University Launches Society-Centered AI Initiative, Including Fuqua Faculty and Amazon Scholar Alex Belloni.

Jiaming Xu researches and teaches deep learning and its business applications, supported by an NSF Career Award.

David Brown shares how Net-Zero Analytics can accelerate the climate transition.

Fuqua Researchers Launch Scientifiq.AI AI-Driven Platform to Accelerate the Translation of Science.

Fuqua Researchers are Driving Applications of AI to all Areas of Business

Decision-Making & Business Optimization

Fuqua researchers are using AI to improve how businesses make decisions, forecast outcomes, and optimize performance across complex systems. Saša Pekeč explores the opportunities and risks of deploying AI in managerial contexts, while Yehua Wei applies machine learning models to enhance supply chain efficiency and operational planning. Professor Jiaming Xu develops statistical and algorithmic methods for learning and decision-making in complex networks, advancing the AI foundations that support scalable, data-driven business analytics.

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

AI is transforming how entrepreneurs build, fund, and scale new ventures. Fuqua’s AI Entrepreneurship course prepares students to lead in this space, while faculty are developing tools to bring innovation to market. Sharique Hasan, Wesley Cohen, and PhD student Roger Masclans are building AI-powered algorithms and platforms that assess the commercial potential of university research, now in use at technology transfer offices across the country. Their work bridges the gap between scientific discovery and entrepreneurial execution.

Organizations & Human-AI Interaction

Fuqua faculty investigate how AI is reshaping workplace behavior, collaboration, and perceptions of fairness. PhD Student Jess Reif, Rick Larrick, and Jack Soll examine how workers who rely on AI tools are viewed by colleagues, uncovering surprising social dynamics that affect trust, delegation, and productivity in human-AI teams.

Market & Consumer Insights

Researchers at Fuqua are using AI to decode consumer behavior, personalize engagement, and inform marketing strategy. Tong Guo integrates AI and econometrics to analyze unstructured data and uncover causal relationships. Other projects focus on improving communication between healthcare providers and patients, including AI-generated explanations of insurance benefits that help consumers better understand their medical costs.

Policy & the Societal Impact of AI

Fuqua faculty are exploring the broader societal implications of AI adoption—including its effects on privacy, fairness, regulation, and user experience. Professor Ali Makhdoumi, in a series of research projects, examines how to transact data for AI-driven business activities responsibly and how to design platforms that mitigate potential harms associated with AI. Two examples of his recent work include an investigation into how market incentives can lead to excessive data sharing—a concern highlighted in the 2023 Economic Report of the President—and the development of a theoretical framework showing how the vast amounts of data collected by online platforms may enable behavioral manipulation, ultimately harming users.

Recent AI Research

DS Joint Probability Estimation of Many Binary Outcomes via Localized Adversarial Lasso

Belloni

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STRAT Measuring the Commercial Potential of Science

Cohen / Hasan

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DS Global Convergence of Federated Learning for Mixed Regression

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OM Show-Up Profiles for Scheduled Services: Estimation and Applications

Bernstein / Keskin

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DS When big data enables behavioral manipulation

Makhdoumi

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Fuqua Researchers are Transforming Learning with AI

Core Analytics and Quantitative Methods

AI is being woven into foundational analytics instruction across Fuqua’s programs, especially within Decision Sciences. Faculty like Alessandro Arlotto and Anqi Zhao ensure that core MBA courses introduce the building blocks of machine learning and AI-powered decision-making. Alex Belloni and Jiaming Xu expand on this foundation with more advanced offerings, including deep neural networks, transformer models, large language models, and diffusion models. Yehua Wei incorporates tools like natural language processing and large language models into advanced analytics courses, giving students hands-on experience with modern AI techniques. These integrations ensure that students build the quantitative fluency necessary to work with AI systems from day one.

Operations and Supply Chain Innovation

Operations faculty are exploring how AI transforms modern supply chains and operational strategy. Jeannette Song introduces students to AI’s role in digitizing supply chains and driving operational innovation. Bora Keskin’s electives go deeper, showing how generative AI can enhance demand prediction, real-time feedback loops, and large-scale optimization. These applications help students see how AI is not only a tool for prediction but a strategic asset in creating responsive, data-driven business processes.

Legal, Ethical, and Societal Contexts

Ethics, governance, and societal impact are central themes in several Fuqua courses. Veronica Root Martinez incorporates AI-driven hiring systems into classroom debates on fairness and transparency. In sustainability-focused electives, faculty examine the environmental cost of AI infrastructure and its implications for ESG strategy. This thread of inquiry ensures that students are not only technically capable but also prepared to navigate the ethical and regulatory complexities that accompany AI in business.

Research Design and PhD Training

AI is being introduced into doctoral-level training as a foundational tool for research and inquiry. Ali Makhdoumi emphasizes the use of AI in decision theory and optimization, while faculty across management and economics are preparing PhD students to incorporate AI responsibly into research design and presentation. Students are encouraged to reflect on how they use AI in crafting arguments, building datasets, and summarizing academic literature, so that emerging scholars are equipped to use AI with methodological rigor.

Pedagogy, Case Development, and Teaching Support

Faculty are also using AI to enhance how they teach. Some have built custom GPTs trained on syllabi and past feedback to serve as 24/7 virtual TAs. Others are using AI to streamline the development of case materials, create new classroom tools, and provide automated yet tailored feedback on student work. Pilots like AI-moderated case discussions are also underway, using AI to evaluate student engagement and conversation depth. These innovations show how AI is being used not just as subject matter, but as a force multiplier for educational design.

Marketing and Consumer Analytics

Marketing faculty bring AI into the classroom through real-world applications in digital strategy, advertising, and consumer research. Carl Mela exposes students to AI tools used in martech, including chatbots, personalization engines, and content generation platforms. Chris Moorman’s executive MBA course addresses how AI reshapes digital marketing investments and customer targeting. Tanya Chartrand introduces students to the automation of qualitative research through AI coding of consumer responses. These lessons prepare students to lead in marketing environments increasingly shaped by AI.

Accounting and Financial Analysis

Accounting faculty at Fuqua are piloting practical ways to integrate AI into financial education. Scott Dyreng tasks students with using AI to conduct forward-looking policy analysis in taxation. Elia Ferracuti teaches students to use Microsoft Copilot for generating memos based on case data, emphasizing refinement and professional judgment. Bill Mayew uses AI to benchmark classroom performance and evaluate generative tools’ effectiveness. Together, these approaches position AI as both a practical assistant and a critical lens through which students evaluate the reliability of financial analysis.

Strategic Management and Industry Applications

Strategy faculty are embedding AI into the fabric of experiential learning. Courses like the EMBA Strategy 848 include comparative exercises where students assess AI versus human performance in customer discovery, build MVPs using generative tools, and use AI in venture design. In energy and life sciences strategy courses, faculty introduce students to sector-specific applications and limitations of AI, such as regulation and privacy. AI is also being used to create custom virtual TAs and tailored case feedback systems. These efforts help students understand not just how to use AI, but how to compete and create with it in dynamic industries.

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Faculty teaching management and leadership focus on how AI is changing workplace dynamics and managerial practice. Students in courses like Navigating Organizations engage with AI-powered negotiation simulations and receive personalized performance feedback. In leadership and communication courses, AI is used to help students structure their thinking and develop more effective messaging. Other classes encourage responsible and reflective AI use, reinforcing the need for ethical leadership in technology-rich environments.

The Duke Fuqua Approach to AI

At Fuqua, AI is not confined to a single course or specialization. It is woven throughout the curriculum, integrated into the way we teach analytics, decision-making, strategy, operations, finance, accounting, marketing, and leadership.

AI+ Foundations

AI for Managers, Transforming Tech Analytics with Machine Intelligence, Foundations of Business Analytics, Data Science for Business, Modern Analytics & Deep Learning, Decision Models & Analytics, Advanced Analytics and Application, Forecasting, AI in Decision-Making, ML & Causal Inference

AI+ Applications

Finance and Accounting

Taxation and Global Management Decisions, Managerial Accounting, Detecting Earnings Management, Innovation and Cryptoventures, Global Asset Allocation, Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital, Energy Finance

Operations

Value Chain Innovation in Business Processes, Core Operations Management

Strategy and Markets

Sustainable Operations, Strategy Implementation, Health Care Markets, Biotech and Pharma Strategy, People Analytics, Strategy in Emerging Markets

Marketing

Marketing Strategy, AI in MarketingTech, Market Research

Core Strategy

AI+ Society

Navigating Organizations, Ethics in Management, Leadership, Ethics, and Organizations

Our goal is not to treat AI as a separate discipline, but to prepare students for a world where AI is embedded in how organizations think, decide, and succeed.

Duke I&E

Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Duke I&E) inspires and empowers the Duke community to act entrepreneurially in all their endeavors. Whether you’re launching a company, tackling a wicked problem, or simply working to stand out in your career, an entrepreneurial mindset and skills help you do it with creativity, resilience, and purpose.

Two Students collaborating together in the Co-Lab

Innovation Co-Lab

The Innovation Co-Lab provides learning opportunities, open studios, equipment resources, and mentorship to the Duke Community in support of teaching, learning, and researching with technology.

Students participating in the Project Seed activity

Christensen Center @ Pratt

The Christensen Family Center for Innovation advances technology innovation at Duke University and beyond through people, programs, and infrastructure.