By now, you've seen several companies grappling with how to apply AI — from IBM's pivot with Watson, to Disney's data strategy, to Stagwell's vision for autonomous marketing. Each of these companies faced a core question: how does AI fit into what we do, and how do we make it work?
For this assignment, it's your turn. Find a company that is using AI in a way that genuinely excites you — either to build an AI-powered product or to transform an internal operation. This should be a company or initiative that you find impressive, surprising, or important. The goal is to go deep: spend real time understanding what the technology does and why it matters.
Choose a Company and AI Initiative
Write a ~500-750-word blogpost covering the following:
The Business Case. Open with what the company does and what the AI initiative is. What problem are they solving? Why does this matter? Make the reader care — convey what makes this implementation interesting, useful, or impressive.
The Technology. Go deeper than surface-level descriptions. What AI technologies are involved? How does the system work? What data does it use? What makes the technical approach interesting or novel? You don't need to be an expert, but you should demonstrate that you spent time understanding how the technology actually works rather than just what it does at a high level.
The Business Model. How does AI amplify or transform the core structure of this business? Is AI enabling a new product, improving an existing process, or changing the competitive landscape? Draw on specific examples from the cases we've discussed in class — where do you see parallels or contrasts with IBM, Disney, Stagwell, or VideaHealth?
References. Back up your analysis with concrete references: quotations, data points, or links to credible sources.
Use of AI is allowed. This assignment is almost trivial with use of frontier LLMs, but the real value is in the genuine curiosity that you bring to it. Pick a company that's interesting enough that you want to learn about it. My suggestion is to do your own research first, form your own opinions, and then use AI to help you refine your writing.
If used, you must write a paragraph entitled "Summary of AI Use" where you summarize your interactions with the LLM and what tasks you used it for. Please also comment on whether anything surprised you or whether the chatbot failed at any particular tasks. This does not count towards the 500 word limit.