As demand for the technology grows, AI is increasingly being integrated into business school curriculums. At Harvard the specialist Data Science and AI for Leaders (DSAIL) course is a requirement for all MBA students to graduate.
The DSAIL course is co-led by Harvard Business School professors Karim R. Lakhani and assistant professor Iavor Bojinov. It has replaced a previous data science course that was part of the required curriculum for first-year students.
The new course builds on the previous offering, focusing on students using AI tools to enable them to analyze data. Janice H. Hammond, the professor who taught the previous data science course, helped develop the DSAIL program to reflect the increasing accessibility of AI tools, and the growing demand for AI skills in MBA graduates.
Offered for the first time this year, while other business schools teach programs on AI and machine learning, Lakhani told the Harvard Crimson he believes the DSAIL course is currently the “only native course about AI and data science in the world.”
Two new AI tools have been created for the course, designed to help further supplement students’ education. This includes a RAG-based tutor bot, housing all the knowledge, cases, and textbooks needed to help students understand statistical, data, and AI concepts. The course then aims to teach students how to apply these concepts in business scenarios.
Alongside the tutor bot, the DSAIL course uses the Julius.ai service, helping students to program in the R and Python coding languages, without having to learn how to code.
