AI at Wharton
The Next Phase of Digital Transformation:
AI Applications and Adoption
The next phase of business transformation is AI. As companies redefine their business models and incorporate AI into operations, the Wharton School recognizes the vital role that dedicated AI research centers will play in navigating future changes. AI at Wharton fosters, coordinates, and promotes AI activities across the University of Pennsylvania. Our research is dually focused on designing and implementing algorithms to improve business processes and human behavior to transform and innovate business enterprises.
Focus Areas
AI at Wharton leverages two strategic initiatives: one focused on understanding the economic and societal impact of AI to drive business transformation, and one focused on the human impact of AI.
Business and AI
Artificial intelligence and analytics are at the center of firms’ decision-making today. AI at Wharton provides business leaders with the understanding of where and how to apply AI to transform and innovate business enterprises. Focus includes AI Business Applications, AI Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and AI Ethics and Governance.
Humans and AI
Artificial intelligence brings new challenges and opportunities. AI at Wharton explores the impact of artificial intelligence across industries and society, inspires innovative teaching and research, and engages global leaders to set a course to address data ethics in an age of digital transformation. Focus includes AI Management.
Events
Upcoming
Driving Innovation with Generative AI: Strategies and Execution
Friday, November 10, 2023 | Co-hosted by the Mack Institute for Innovation Management and AI at Wharton | By invitation only
Leadership

Kartik Hosanagar
Kartik Hosanagar is the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Kartik’s research work focuses on the digital economy, in particular the impact of analytics and algorithms on consumers and society, Internet media, Internet marketing, and e-commerce.
Kartik serves as a department editor at the journal Management Science and has previously served as a Senior Editor at the journals Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly. He is a ten-time recipient of MBA or Undergraduate teaching excellence awards at the Wharton School and has been recognized as one of the world’s top 40 business professors under 40. Kartik’s research has received several best paper awards. Kartik cofounded and developed the core IP for Yodle Inc, a venture-backed firm that was acquired by Web.com. Yodle was listed by Inc. Magazine among America’s fastest growing private companies. He has served on the advisory boards of Milo (acq. by eBay) and is involved with many other startups as either an investor or board member. His past consulting and executive education clients include Google, American Express, Citi and others. Kartik was a co-host of the SiriusXM show The Digital Hour.
Kartik graduated at the top of his class with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and a Masters in Information Systems from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India, and he has an MPhil in Management Science and a PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.
Outside of Wharton, he likes to make short films and work on and with startups.
Contact Kartik at kartikh@wharton.upenn.edu.
John C. Hower Professor
Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions
Faculty Co-Director, AI at Wharton

Robert Meyer
Robert Meyer is the Frederick H. Ecker/MetLife Insurance Professor and Co-Director of Wharton’s Human-Centered Technology Initiative. He is a noted scholar whose research focuses on consumer decision making and analysis in a wide range of areas including responses to new technologies, behavioral economics, marketing research methods. Professor Meyer’s work has appeared in a wide variety of professional journals and books, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Marketing Science, Management Science, and Risk Analysis. He is the former editor of the Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Letters. He has served or currently serves as an associated editor for the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing, and Marketing Science.
At Wharton, Professor Meyer has served as chair of the Marketing Department and Vice Dean of Wharton’s doctoral programs. His teaching interests include courses in New Product Management, Research Methods, and Marketing Strategy, which he has taught at the MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral levels. He is also an active participant in a number of Wharton’s executive education programs.
Professor Meyer joined the marketing faculty in 1990 after spending eight years on the faculty of the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and two years at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University. He also held appointments as visiting professor in the school of Business Administration at the University of Miami, the University of Sydney, and the University of Tokyo.
Frederick H. Ecker/MetLife Insurance Professor
Professor of Marketing
Faculty Co-Director, AI at Wharton

Stefano Puntoni
Stefano Puntoni is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School. Prior to joining Penn, Stefano was a professor of marketing and head of department at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, in the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in marketing from London Business School and a degree in Statistics and Economics from the University of Padova, in his native Italy.
His research has appeared in several leading journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Nature Human Behavior, and Management Science. He also writes regularly for managerial outlets such as Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Most of his ongoing research investigates how new technology is changing consumption and society.
He is a former MSI Young Scholar and MSI Scholar, and the winner of several grants and awards. He is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Research and at the Journal of Marketing. Stefano teaches in the areas of marketing strategy, new technologies, brand management, and decision making.
Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing
Professor of Marketing
Faculty Co-Director, AI at Wharton

Mary Purk
As Executive Director of Corporate & Donor Engagement, Mary Purk leads the academic research center that focuses on the development and application of cutting-edge analytics methods. Through AAW’s experiential programs, Ms. Purk connects students, academics, and professionals across multiple industries to solve complex, real-world business challenges using machine learning, AI, and big data.
Ms. Purk has held other principal roles at Nielsen and IRI developing and implementing enterprise-wide analytic platforms focused on customers and brand equity. Her expertise includes forecast models, consumer segmentations, marketing mix models, product assortments, pricing, and digital strategies.
Other work experience includes leading the Retail Research Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and consulting roles with Accenture and AT Kearney.
Ms. Purk is a proud MBA alumnus of the University of Chicago Booth and the University of Illinois. Ms. Purk has designed and instructed executive education courses, presented at numerous conferences, and published papers in the Journal of Marketing and Journal of Retailing.
Contact Mary at marypurk@wharton.upenn.edu.
Executive Director, AI at Wharton
Executive Director of Corporate & Donor Engagement, Analytics at Wharton

Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe
Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions
Faculty Co-Director, AI at Wharton
Get Involved
Research
- AI at Wharton funds faculty research projects that explore the social implications of AI and showcase business applications of machine learning. Learn more and apply for research grants.
Learn
- Artificial Intelligence for Business is an online program for learners seeking the competitive edge in emerging business technology. Tech-oriented professionals, online marketers, statisticians, automation innovators, and data professionals alike will benefit from this four-week course.
Invest
- Is your company interested in working with faculty and students to solve business questions regarding AI adoption? If so, please contact Tania Rorke at rorket@wharton.upenn.edu. If you’d like to judge or invest in AI-related startups competing for funding in the Venture Lab Startup Challenge, please contact Mary Purk at marypurk@wharton.upenn.edu.
Attend
- Attend or present at any of our workshops and symposiums. Each year we strive to curate several academic and industry research events to share the latest research and connect with others in San Francisco and Philadelphia.
AI at Wharton News

How AI Will Change the Workplace?
Sonny Tambe, Faculty Co-Director of AI at Wharton, chats with The Wall Street Journal about the ways AI will change the workplace. Read article »

Artificial Intelligence Risk & Governance
This white paper provides views on potential approaches to AI governance for financial services, including potential risks, risk categorization, interpretability, discrimination, and risk mitigation. Read article »

How Is AI Shaping Human Identity?
Wharton’s Stefano Puntoni believes new technologies like generative AI can play a complementary role in human lives — as soon as we overcome our fear of it.
Listen here »

Consumers and Artificial Intelligence: An Experiential Perspective
In this paper by Stefano Puntoni, Faculty Co-Director of AI at Wharton, et al, discover the myriad ways in which AI is poised to influence the customer experiences. Read article »

How Do We Coexist With Algorithms?
After decades of slow development, the growth of artificial intelligence is now in hyperdrive. AI at Wharton’s Kartik Hosanagar explains how AI is changing human history, whether we’re ready or not. Listen here »

A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence
Kartik Hosanagar surveys the brave new world of algorithmic decision-making and reveals the potentially dangerous biases they can give rise to as they increasingly run our lives. Learn more »
Contact
AI at Wharton
Academic Research Building
265 S. 37th Street, Third Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104
aiwharton@wharton.upenn.edu