28 Mar 2025

New MBA Course Uses AI Tools to Help Students Stay on the Pulse of AI

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by Kennedy Ryan

The next generation of business leaders won’t just use AI—they’ll collaborate with it. That’s the driving philosophy behind the new Data Science and AI for Leaders (DSAIL) course, which equips MBA students with hands-on experience in AI-powered tools to stay ahead in an evolving business landscape. "If the 20th century was defined by the MBA wielding Excel, this century will be defined by MBAs working hand-in-hand with AI agents—reimagining organizations, business models, and operating models from the ground up,” said Professor Karim Lakhani, announcing the launch of the course in his recent Substack article.

Designed to give students direct exposure to AI in action, this Required Curriculum (RC) course immerses them in AI-driven tools—with no coding experience required. Through daily interactions with AI agents, students build fluency in how these technologies can enhance decision-making, automate complex tasks, and unlock new business opportunities. Co-led by Lakhani and Assistant Professor Iavor Bojinov, the creation of the AI-native course was supported through the collaboration of Digital Transformation (DTx), the Digital Data Design Institute (D^3), HBS IT, and the MBA Program.

The AI-Powered Learning Experience

DTx worked closely with faculty to deploy two key AI-driven tools in support of this new MBA offering:

  • The DSAIL Tutorbot is a generative AI chatbot developed by DTx that serves as an always-available tutor, helping students break down complex topics, reinforce key concepts, discuss case study themes, and explore AI-related discussions at their own pace. Trained on all course materials—including cases, textbooks, and AI references—the bot personalizes the learning experience by providing immediate, contextually tailored explanations to each student's level of understanding, from foundational to advanced
  • To enhance trust and usability, the tutorbot includes features such as chat history for ongoing learning, a faithfulness score displaying how much of the response is grounded in faculty-approved content, and a faculty designated content release schedule that ensures students engage with materials at the intended points of the course.
  • Integrated into HBS’s proprietary AI platform, Julius.ai allows students to perform sophisticated data analysis using simple natural language commands. Instead of writing code, students can make requests such as, "Run a regression on X and Y" or "Visualize customer segments," enabling them to focus on strategic insights rather than technical execution. Faculty can review anonymized student interactions from the DSAIL tutorbot and Julius.ai to track progress and adjust lesson plans.

    • Looking Ahead

    In just the first few weeks of the course, engagement metrics demonstrate strong adoption, with the DSAIL Course Bot supporting 453 distinct users (49 percent of enrolled students) across 1,094 conversations and 3,496 messages, while Julius.ai has engaged 840 users (90 percent of enrolled students) in 8,314 conversations and processed 71,675 messages.

    “We are thrilled to be a part of transforming business education at HBS, preparing our students to be leaders in the age of AI,” said Matthew Negri, managing director of DTx. The team is also rolling out agent capabilities to MBA, developing natural-language search tools to help Harvard Business Publishing customers build smarter course packs, and launching new AI-powered experiences to support alumni and entrepreneurs later this year.

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