Harvard Business School is expanding its educational reach by integrating AI-generated instructor avatars into its HBS Foundry program, an eight-week entrepreneurship bootcamp priced at $699. Developed in partnership with startup HeyGen, these digital doubles deliver individualized feedback during practice pitches and simulated board meetings, supplementing weekly live sessions with actual faculty.
The initiative gained attention after New York Times reporter Sarah Kessler tested the system by pitching a venture concept—”Uber for bananas”—to an AI replica of Flybridge Capital co-founder and HBS lecturer Jeff Bussgang. While both the human and synthetic versions of Bussgang dismissed the idea, Kessler noted the avatar maintained a distinctly frozen smile throughout her presentation.
Project director Katharina Rings initially conceived the AI component as a simple chatbot interface. However, pilot participants requested a more structured, guided experience, prompting the shift toward interactive avatars. Despite occasional skepticism toward AI in academic settings, Foundry enrollees have responded positively to the tool. Bussgang himself acknowledged the technology is “creepy,” but added, “My students love it.”
