Conference Agenda

8:30–9:00 a.m. — Breakfast 


9:00–9:10 a.m. — Welcome and Introduction 

Valery Yakubovich, Executive Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management 


9:10–9:40 a.m. — Productivity 2.0:  What Is Productivity in the Era of AI? 

The desire of improving productivity is as old as the field of management and has been the driver behind the industrial revolution. In this session, we reflect on the history of automation and draw parallels between early forms of automation such as the power loom and today’s technologies such as self-driving cars and Generative AI. 

Christian Terwiesch, Andrew M. Heller Professor; Chair of Information, Operations, and Decisions Department; Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management 


9:40–11:10 a.m. — Automating Customer Service 

Whether assisting travelers with inquiries, providing mental health support, helping students with homework assignments, or aiding in financial planning, chatbots powered by generative artificial intelligence in the form of large language models (LLM) can help deliver efficient, scalable, and personalized customer support. In this session, we discuss challenges and opportunities that come with automation of customer service 

Vibs Abhishek, Co-Founder and CEO, Alltius

Danielle Corey, Head of Digital Enablement, Principal, Vanguard Personal Investor

Jared Coyle, Chief AI Officer North America, SAP 

Moderated by Christian Terwiesch


11:10–11:30 a.m. — Coffee Break 


11:30–1:00 p.m. — Designing Workflows with Humans in the Loop  

A successful use of chatbots, however, is more than just a matter of designing and building a new technology. Rather, the chatbot must be integrated into the workflow of the organization. In this session, we discuss different modes of interactions between the chatbot and the human operators. At the 30,000 foot level, such modes of interactions are broadly referred to as “humans in the loop” processes. But, as we will explain, there are many ways to design a workflow in which a human operator collaborates with a chatbot to support a customer. 

Martin Bittner, Co-Founder and CEO, Redouble AI 

Olympia Brikis, Director of Industrial AI Research, Siemens

Parth Thaker, AI Strategy and Partnerships, Comcast

Moderated by Lynn Wu, Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions 


1:00 – 2:30 p.m. — Networking Lunch

Participants are encouraged to continue their group discussions 


 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. — Automating R&D 

Identifying opportunities for new ventures, understanding customer needs and generating solutions for them, or naming a new company are unstructured tasks that seem ill suited for algorithms. Innovators such as scientists in corporate R&D labs and entrepreneurs have thus considered themselves immune from the “rise of the machines.” Certainly AI will replace truck drivers and radiologists before it encroaches on the challenges of creative problem solving, they think. Yet recent advances in AI, and specifically the advent of large language models are challenging these assumptions. How good is AI in generating new ideas? Can we automate parts of the R&D process? 

Jeremy Greenberg, Founder, Crowdwave

Braj Thakur, Sr. Director, Ricoh USA  

TBA, Infosys

Moderated by David Hsu, Richard A. Sapp Professor of Management


4:00 p.m. — Wrapping Up

Christian Terwiesch, Andrew M. Heller Professor; Chair of Information, Operations, and Decisions Department; Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management 

Valery Yakubovich, Executive Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management