Attention prospective MBAs: Adam Pah, clinical assistant professor of management at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, has some news for you that sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie. Pah believes that “artificial intelligence and machine learning are eating software” and business students need to understand how and why.
In order to keep with the shifting data science landscape, Pah’s Human-Machine Intelligence (HMI) course has part of the Kellogg Architectures of Collaboration Initiative (KACI) and crucial for MBA students pursuing a career that involves leveraging machine learning.
“Machine learning is allowing better insights to be mined from data that organizations already own or have access to, which means they can be more productive with their time,” Pah said in a Northwestern news release. “And focus more on the human relationship element that is vital to making everything run smoothly.”
Rather than just covering topics, Pah’s Human-Machine Intelligence course directly attacks different questions, such as: “How do people fit into this evolving space? What do our interactions look like? How do we manage this process when introducing machine learning? How do we maintain vision around AI/HMI and what it can do?”
The class features alumni case studies, with different former Kellogg students discussing and demonstrating how the Human-Machine Learning works in their particular business or industry. Pah also invites industry leaders, innovators and experts into the classroom to speak to his students—thought leaders like David Ferrucci, who led the team that built the Watson computer system for IBM.
Brian Uzzi, a Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change and faculty director of the KACI, believes that the Initiative’s human-machine intelligence focus enables faculty to prepare students to dictate how machine learning can change business in the future.
“That kind of information comes into the classroom so readily,” Uzzi said. “That students really come out on the job market with a great leg up on their competition, already being able to go into an organization and take on high-level leadership positions.”