AI is transforming the way businesses operate, compete, and innovate. This session showcases cutting-edge research from Columbia University faculty, exploring how AI is driving decision-making, shaping strategy, and redefining industries. Join us for insights into the opportunities and challenges of AI in business, backed by the latest academic research and real-world applications.

Time & Location

3:30 - 5:00 PM | Columbia Business School, Cooperman Commons, David Geffen Hall, 645 W. 130th Street, New York, NY 10027

Speakers

Lydia Chilton

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University School of Engineering & Applied Sciences

Bio: Lydia Chilton is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Columbia Engineering, and her area of study is in Human-Computer Interaction. Her research is in AI+design - how AI can help people with design, innovation, and creative problem-solving. Some applications include: creating media for journalism, developing technology for public libraries, improving risk communication during hurricanes, helping scientists explain their work, and improving mental health in marginalized communities. Chilton received her PhD from the University of Washington in 2016. She received her Master’s in Engineering from MIT in 2009 and her SB In 2007, also from MIT. Prior to joining Columbia Engineering in 2017, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.

Stephan Meier

James P. Gorman Professor of Business & Chair of Management Division, Columbia Business School Management Division

Bio: Stephan Meier is currently the chair of the Management Division and the James P. Gorman Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich, was previously a senior economist at the Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision-Making at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and taught courses on strategic interactions and economic policy at Harvard University and the University of Zurich. His research interest is in behavioral strategy. He investigates the impact of psychology and economics on human decision-making and its implications for public policy and firms' strategy. Current research topics include how non-selfish behavior affect organizations or the effect of borrower's decision-making on financial institutions' strategy. His work has been published in the leading academic journals including the American Economic Review and Management Science, and has been profiled by the press such as The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Neue Zuercher Zeitung.

Oded Netzer (Moderator)

Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Business & Vice Dean for Research, Columbia Business School Marketing Division & Dean's Office

Bio: Professor Netzer's expertise centers on one of the major business challenges of the data-rich environment: developing quantitative methods that leverage data to gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior and guide firms' decisions. He focuses primarily on building statistical and econometric models to measure consumer preferences and understand how customer choices change over time, and across contexts. Most notably, he has developed a framework for managing firms' customer bases through dynamic segmentation. More recently, his research focuses on leveraging unstructured data for business applications.

He is the author of the book Decisions over Decimals.

Professor Netzer published numerous papers in leading scholarly journals. His research won multiple awards including, ISMS Long-term Contribution Award, the John Little Best Paper Award, the Frank Bass Outstanding Dissertation Award, the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) Best Paper Award, and the George S. Eccles Research Fund Award. He serves on the editorial board of several leading journals including Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Oded teaches several courses including the Core Marketing course, a course on Marketing Research, a course on Developing Quantitative Intuition (QI), a doctoral course on Empirical Models in Marketing, as well as several executive education programs. Professor Netzer has won the Columbia Business School Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Columbia University GSAC Faculty Mentoring Award to commemorate excellence in the mentoring of Ph.D. students.

Professor Netzer is an Amazon Scholar. Additionally, he frequently consult to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial organization on strategy, data-driven decision making, marketing research and extracting useful information from rich and thin data.

Tianyi Peng

Assistant Professor of Business, Columbia Business School, Decision, Risk, and Operations Division

Bio: Tianyi Peng is an Assistant Professor in the Decision, Risk, and Operations division at Columbia Business School. He is broadly interested in AI for decision-making, with a focus on enhancing real-world systems using techniques like generative AI models, reinforcement learning, and experimentation/simulation methods. He is a founding member of Cimulate.AI, a startup that deploys generative AI for e-commerce. His research has received multiple prizes, including the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research, the Applied Probability Society Best Student Paper Prize, and the Revenue Management and Pricing Jeff McGill Student Paper Award.

He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2023 and his Bachelor's degree from the Yao Class at Tsinghua University in 2017.

Olivier Toubia

Glaubinger Professor of Business, Columbia Business School Marketing Division

Bio: Olivier Toubia is the Glaubinger Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His research focuses primarily on innovation, customer insights, and creative industries. Specifically, he combines methods from social sciences and data science in order to study human processes such as motivation, choice, and creativity. He previously served as the Editor-in-Chief at the journal Marketing Science. He teaches Foundations of Innovation, Generative AI for Business and the core marketing course. He received his MS in Operations Research and PhD in Marketing from MIT.

If you have any questions about the event, please email dfi@gsb.columbia.edu

AI in Business: Cutting-Edge Research and Real-World Impact