For some, thoughts of artificial intelligence, doom and gloom, or robots taking over the world might come to mind. After all, it’s the age of generative AI—a seemingly magical technology that can create artwork, write papers, or build code—all within seconds.

Where do humans fit in?

Goizueta Business School graduates fit in everywhere. The future of work is an exciting prospect, and they are ready for it. These workers of the future are embracing their passions and pursuing multiple careers, making business decisions for the betterment of society, leveraging technology to enhance their
skills, and learning how to lead dispersed, remote teams.

Goizueta graduates don’t fear the future. They embrace it.

The Value of High-Tech Skills

“Technology is what it is, and we have to keep up with it and be familiar with the latest tools, but at the end of the day, the theory is a theory. [We] know the underlying math that goes into AI and that enables us to make informed decisions that will eventually make an impact on whatever project we’re working on,” says Sebastian Peña 19BBA 20MSBA, a management consultant for Accenture.

Recently, Peña faced having to write JavaScript, a language he doesn’t know, for a client. He planned on taking a course, but with the popularity of generative AI (like ChatGPT), Peña decided to turn to tech. Armed with a basic understanding of how to write code, Peña leveraged AI to fill in the gaps. A task that would have taken Peña several weeks took an hour.

Being a worker of the future means utilizing available tools to amplify your existing skills, he says.

“It’s easy to imagine a dystopian future, where most jobs are automated and workers disappear, but I think our students today are equipped to imagine a future where technology instead enables more prosperity and sustainability,” says Wes Longhofer, associate professor of organization and management, associate professor of sociology (by courtesy), and executive academic director of Goizueta’s Business & Society Institute. “If they can imagine it, then they can create it.”

Gathering the Data Points of Your Career

Research shows that younger generations find job-hopping beneficial. Multiple careers are—and will continue to be—the norm. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that, in September 2022, employees stayed with their current jobs an average of four years. This is especially true for younger generations.

Urvi Bhandari 99BBA 06MBA has no problem admitting that many of her career choices were directly tied to what was going on in her personal life at the time. That’s not to say her decisions weren’t driven by her professional aspirations. But they were equally tied to what was best for her, whether it was working for AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company, IBM, or Walmart—or being a nomad while in her executive roles.

“I want people to understand that life matters,” says Urvi, executive career coach and co-founder of peppercorn.ai.

The premise of Peppercorn.ai is to remove resumes from the equation and focus on the candidate. Rather than having prospective employees mold their story to fit a job description, the platform revolves around supporting the candidate to have clarity and confidence in their journey.

“We make business decisions with data points. Why don’t we make decisions for ourselves based on data points?” argues Urvi. “The world is changing. There is no one way to approach a career.’”

“Workers of the future are no longer going to be doing things because ‘that’s what the path is.’ There is no path,” Urvi continues. “People are making their own paths by taking control of articulating who they are, knowing where they’re going, and marketing what they offer.”

Forward Facing: How Business and Society Can (and Should) Mingle

Longhofer has nothing but optimism for the workers of the future and what they can accomplish for businesses—and for society.

Generation Z values a business’s societal and cultural impact, sometimes over salary and benefits, according to research by Deloitte. A vast majority (77 percent) of respondents cited social activism, and the evidence of it, as a high priority when deciding whether to work for a company. Workers of the future want companies with good values and ethics and a commitment to confronting societal issues, such as sustainability, climate change, and hunger.

As technology and AI advance at an unprecedented pace, workers of the future will be the ones who remind us that human flourishing and planetary survival are still essential.

Wes Longhofer

Workers of the future will have to combine their analytical and technological skills with creative solutions to address business needs. “It’s not enough to optimize your supply chain for peak efficiency. You also need to embed human rights into it and report your scope 3 emissions,” says Longhofer.

As complex as these challenges might sound, students at Goizueta are already rising to the occasion. The Business & Society Institute embeds this system-thinking approach into classes, experiential learning, global modules, directed studies, clubs, conferences, and case competitions. Students are being introduced to climate change and inequality. They’re given ample opportunities—in a variety of formats—to put their skills to the test in safe, supported environments before bringing their knowledge and ideas to their future companies.

The Power of People Skills

Workers of the future need not only the technical skills learned in class, but also soft skills. Whether a company conducts business in person or operates remotely, leaders of today and tomorrow must know how to lead through a screen and across time zones.

“The human factor of leading becomes increasingly important in a complex, uncertain, and volatile world where you’re not just leading in person anymore,” says Lieutenant General USA (Ret.) Ken Keen, associate dean for leadership and associate professor in the practice of organization and management.

As technology continues to advance, managers and executives must also know how to lead those whose technical knowledge surpasses their own. Whether you’re the chief financial officer or chief operating officer, you must know how to lead a league of people with varying skill levels.

“Every business is a people business,” says Brian Mitchell, associate dean of the Full-Time MBA programs and Goizueta Global Strategy and Initiatives. “You have to be able to relate to people and be relatable. A great leader cannot lead one way and expect everyone else to conform. They have to be able to manage many different work styles and personalities.”

Adapting to the Shifting Landscape

In addition to learning how to manage across styles and personalities, growth is key. That’s where continued education comes into play, shares Nicola Barrett, Goizueta’s chief corporate learning officer. “Changes in both technology and societal expectations require anyone in business to adopt new skills, approaches, and mindsets. They must become digitally fluent and to re-create their playbook to see, design, and unlock new growth opportunities. Emory Executive Education works with organizations and their professionals to develop these critical capabilities to catalyze new growth possibilities.”

Goizueta’s leadership is also constantly reviewing and tweaking its programs. The undergraduate BBA program, led by Andrea Hershatter, senior associate dean of undergraduate education and associate professor in the practice of organization and management, launched adjustments following a deep review in order to remain relevant to the latest scholarly research, recruiter and business needs, and alumni feedback.

“The revised curriculum enhances our ability to equip our students for an increasingly data-driven world in which the outcomes of business decisions are multifaceted and far-reaching. It simultaneously helps us build our student competencies and address their desire to create individualized and customized academic experiences,” says Hershatter.

The school’s highly ranked MBA program is next. One of the focus areas of the review is enhancing the global nature of the program, more deeply weaving experiential learning into the curriculum, rather than treating such opportunities as optional additions to the standard MBA track. 

“So much of the work of the future is going to happen irrespective of borders,” shares Mitchell. “Workers of the future are going to be global by definition.”

Gaining Global Perspectives

For Evan Lyons 22MBA, being global is inherent. Lyons learned to walk in England, and played soccer in Brazil as a teenager. He participated in an exchange program, then internship in France, and met his wife in Mexico. He can speak English, French, and Spanish fluently and has a working knowledge of German and Portuguese.

Lyons found immense value from his global experiences when he owned his own consulting company. He now uses that experience in his job as an investment banker for Bank of America. Lyon tries to begin meetings in the language of the country he’s in. He always downloads the local holiday calendar to be aware of how the area’s cultural traditions might impact workflow.

MBA graduates and workers of the future have to understand the global perspective because most major companies are global. If you want to rise up in any organization in any industry, you have to be able to understand where the company is playing, how to build relationships across cultures, and develop strategies that can flex and work in other places.

Evan Lyons 22 MBA

This diverse perspective—and the willingness to meet people where they are—builds relationships and strengthens leadership skills. Both of these are critical skills for workers of the future.

“The future is now for all of these things. They’re incremental steps. They are small innovations that lead to big innovations and big changes,” says Lyons. “The workers of tomorrow, the leaders of the future, they are in the workplace today.”

Interested in pursuing a business degree? Learn more about the unique programs Goizueta has to offer.

The post Preparing the Workers of the Future appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

“We continue to develop principled and impactful leaders and entrepreneurs, foster innovation for a data and technology driven world, and grow a global presence fueled by local synergies,” said Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean. “I’m proud of our faculty and staff – and energized about the future of our school and students.”

Impacting Business & Beyond

Faculty and staff contribute to the Goizueta and Emory community, but also have significant impact on society and the broader business world. External awards include:

Karen Sedatole, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting, was named as an editor to the Accounting Review. Sedatole was also elected to the position of president elect for the Management Accounting section of the American Accounting Association.

Emma Zhang, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was named an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Zhang was also named an associate editor to the Journal of the American Accounting Association.

Ruomeng Cui, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was a finalist for the 2022 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management for her paper, “Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon.”

Panos Adamopoulos, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named as an associate editor at Management Science.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, was appointed as the senior editor of Organization Science and also received an honorable mention for the Robert K. Merton Award for his paper, “What’s Next? Artists’ Music After Grammy Awards.” Negro additionally served as the principal investigator for the 2022 LGBTQ Southern Survey.

Erika Hall, associate professor of organization & management, was named as an incoming associate editor at the Academy of Management Discoveries.

Dan McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing and Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing were recognized by Poets&Quants’.” McCarthy was also a finalist for the Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was designated as one of the top instructors by Coursera for Management Consulting courses.

Vilma Todri, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named an associate editor to the Management Information Systems Quarterly Journal, one of the top three leading Information Systems journals.

Tonya Smalls, assistant professor in the practice of accounting, has been appointed to serve on the Inaugural Advisory Board for Make-A-Wish Georgia (MAWGA).

Leading the Future Of Emory and Goizueta

Goizueta Business School and Emory also honor academic professionals and leaders for their dedication to excellence through teaching, content development, experiential learning, scholarly inquisition, and commitment.

“We could not be prouder of our exceptional faculty and staff for their remarkable work and dedication throughout the past year,” says Anandhi Bharadwaj, who will step down as vice dean for faculty and research this summer as Professor Wei Jiang prepares to take on the role. “It has been an honor to work alongside our faculty and staff in developing the school and its programs.”

The recipients of these prestigious honors and awards are listed below:

Rajiv Garg, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was awarded the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education. Garg was also honored as the MSBA Distinguished Core Educator.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was awarded Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, received the Keough Faculty Award. Negro also received the Jordan Research Award.

Marvell Nesmith, associate dean of academic affairs & instructional design, received the Keough Staff Award.

Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, was honored as the BBA Distinguished Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (One Year).

Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, professor in the practice of marketing, was awarded the Evening MBA Distinguished Core Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Two Year).

Charles Goetz, associate professor in the Practice of organization & management, was awarded Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator.

Ray Hill, associate professor in the practice of finance, was recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Classic Faculty).

Alvin Lim and David Sackin were awarded MSBA Distinguished Elective Educators.

Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, was awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Core).

Kevin Crowley, associate professor in the practice of finance and Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Dean’s Distinguished Chair of Finance, were awarded MAF Distinguished Educators. Crowley was also awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Elective).

Giacomo Negro, Melissa Williams and Panos Adamopoulos received Goizueta research awards at the levels of full, associate, and assistant professor, respectively.

Goizueta Business School is proud to present the accomplishments of these and other faculty members within our institution. To learn more about the teaching, specialized research, and core interests of each faculty member, check out our faculty profiles and their related publications. 

The post Goizueta Faculty and Staff Shine with Prestigious Accolades and Honors appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Concerns about the unchecked rise of AI are not new, and global media is increasingly sounding the alarm, citing concerns that range from invasion of privacy to an existential threat to human existence. 

Weighing in on this with compelling new evidence around the “unintended consequences” of AI is research by Goizueta’s Ramnath Chellappa and Information Systems PhD candidate, Jonathan Gomez Martinez.  

Uncovering the Threat 

Their paper, Content Moderation and AI: Impact on Minority Communities, takes a hard look at how the use of AI in social media could disadvantage LGBTQ+ users. And what they find is worrying.  

Chellappa, who is Goizueta Foundation Term Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, explains that he and Gomez Martinez homed in on Twitter to explore how unchecked artificial language moderation might (mistakenly) censor the use of “otherwise toxic” language by failing to understand the context or nuanced use of the LGBTQ+ lexicon. Examples of this include “reclaimed language”—verbiage that would be a slur in other contexts—but is reclaimed and prosocial if used by the originally targeted community.  

“This is a community that has ‘reclaimed’ certain words and expressions that might be considered offensive in other contexts. Terms like ‘queer’ are used within the community both in jest and as a marker of identity and belonging. But if used by those outside the community, this kind of language could be deemed inflammatory or offensive.” 

Jonathan Gomez Martinez

Gomez Martinez adds: “We wanted to measure the extent to which AI’s lack of a nuanced understanding of what is ‘acceptable’ affects minority users’ online interactions. As humans, we understand that marginalized communities have long used ‘reclaimed words’ both in jest and as a kind of rallying cry. Our intuition was that the machine simply wouldn’t understand this without context—context that is more immediately apparent to people.” 

Determining the Impact of AI-Based Moderation 

To test this, he and Chellappa looked at data from social media behemoth, Twitter. During the pandemic in 2020, the platform made a significant shift to AI-based content moderation to accommodate stay-at-home measures. Data from Twitter’s proprietary Academic Research API afforded Gomez Martinez and Chellappa access to a complete listing of historical tweets and replies before, during and after this period. Together they analyzed a total of 3.8 million interactions (1.8 million tweets and 2.0 million replies) from a panel of 2,751 users, of which 1,224 self-identified as LGBTQ+ in their Twitter bios. Their study ran over four months, from January to May 2020, before, during and after the switch to machine-based moderation.  

Using the same tools that Twitter moderators deploy to moderate interactions, Gomez Martinez and Chellappa were able to measure any increase or decrease in pro-social, in-group teasing and toxic language among LGBTQ+ users: terms such as “bitch” or “queer,” which research shows to be a form of ritualized insults—dubbed “reading” by the community—which can appear inappropriate or incoherent to outsiders, says Chellappa.  

“Analyzing the language, we find a notable reduction in the use of terms that could be considered toxic. When the AI moderation is in effect, you see these users’ language become more vanilla,” he adds. Quantifiably so, in fact.  

Chellappa and Martinez find a 27 percent reduction in the use of reclaimed language among LGBTQ+ users. And while that doesn’t sound like much, it’s significant for the community, says Gomez Martinez. 

“Using in-language and reading each other is one way for this marginalized group to create a sense of community and social status. Not just that, we know from research that LGBTQ+ people use slurs and insults as a way of preparing themselves emotionally and psychologically for hostile interaction with heterosexual individuals. This kind of teasing and playing helps build resilience, so any reduction in it is significant.” 

Jonathan Gomez Martinez

Good Intentions May Breed Unexpected Consequences 

So what does this mean for social media, for the LGBTQ+ community or any marginalized group for that matter, that might be prone to automated censorship? And how does any of this play out in the context of broader concerns around AI? 

For Chellappa and Gomez Martinez, there is a major hazard in granting technology any degree of control over how human beings interact. And it’s rooted in the mismatch between good intentions and unexpected consequences. Their paper, one of the first to dig into the impact of AI on actual business and society, lays bare some of the real-world impact AI has already had on marginalized people. While this study looks at the LGBTQ+ community, it could equally apply to any group that is prone to bias or exclusion—racial minorities or any other underrepresented demographic. 

“Wherever you have user-generated content, you are likely to find communities with their own, unique way of interacting. We looked at LGBTQ+ Twitter users, but you could also look at the African American community, for instance.”

Ramnath K. Chellapa

At a time when social media platforms have become almost newslike in their influence, this is a concern. On the one hand, censoring certain demographics might earn Twitter et al an unwanted reputation for being anti-LGBTQ+ or racist, he adds. But there are even bigger stakes here than bad publicity. 

“Twitter has long aspired to be a kind of global town square,” says Gomez Martinez. “But you end up pretty far from that scenario if only some voices are truly heard, or if you start reinforcing biases because you are using a time-saving technology that is not equipped yet to understand the complexity and nuance of human interaction.” 

AI isn’t there yet, say Chellappa and Gomez Martinez. And they caution against using AI indiscriminately to expedite or streamline processes that impact human communication and interchange. If we don’t keep track of it, their research shows that AI has the potential to start dictating and moving people into normative behavior—effectively homogenizing us. And that’s a problem. 

Goizueta faculty apply their expertise and knowledge to solving problems that society—and the world—face. Learn more about faculty research at Goizueta. 

Ready to learn more about AI or level up your career? Learn more about Emory’s full-time MS in Business Analytics—now offering an AI in Business track—for early career professionals, or Emory’s advanced part-time MS in Business Analytics for Working Professionals. 

The post Is AI Censoring Us? appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Now, with more demand than seats in the program and companies seeking business analytics professionals more than ever, Goizueta is aiming to push even further, giving businesses and students more cutting-edge experiences and opportunities.

Starting in Fall 2023, the MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) will expand its options to the current full-time MSBA by offering a new AI in Business track. Goizueta will also launch the Master of Science in Business Analytics for Working Professionals (xMSBA), a degree based on the same successful full-time MSBA, but in a new format. The xMSBA is exclusively designed for professionals currently working in the data, IT, and analytics fields.

xMSBA: The Master of Science in Business Analytics for Working Professionals

Since the launch of the full-time MS in Business Analytics, Goizueta has been inundated with interest from corporate partners about a part-time degree for their employees. Students enrolled in the full-time program are mostly recent undergraduate students with little-to-no professional work experience, looking to start a career in business analytics.

Companies want the same intensive MSBA program with advanced machine learning and AI techniques, but for their working professionals.

“We have observed a need in the industry from current working professionals in the areas of business, technology, and data, and what we are offering is fundamentally different than other possibilities that these people have right now,” says Ramnath Chellappa, associate dean and academic director of Goizueta’s MS in Business Analytics and professor of Information Systems & Operations Management.

Goizueta’s xMSBA will build upon the core competencies and classes of the current program, but certain elements will be tailored for the working analytics professional. Classes will be held in the evenings and on Saturdays. Students will participate in multiple residencies: two to start and end their degree in Atlanta and two three-day international trips.

The xMSBA program welcomes students who have five or more years of work experience in business analytics or related fields and already possess basic data and programming skills. The goal is not only to upskill the students’ core abilities, but to also provide better understanding of how the advanced topics of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing can be applied to problems their industry and company might face.

This degree is targeted towards those individuals who are working and want to make a difference in their firm’s ability to use data to solve business problems. Earn our xMSBA and be that x-factor in your organization’s analytics capabilities.

Ram Chellappa

Another unique element is the analytics practicum. Firms that send employees will have the opportunity to unravel a particular real-world problem they’re facing, using their own data. Often, the legal teams at large organizations roadblock access to this proprietary data due to liability and intellectual property concerns. However, through the xMSBA, only the students from that firm will have access to the data, and they will be guided through the process by the expert hand of MSBA faculty members and Managing Director Scott Radcliffe.

“The program has developed a unique way of taking a business situation, converting it to a data problem, deriving data-science-based solutions and converting those solutions into a business recommendation,” says Chellappa.

The xMSBA degree also utilizes Goizueta’s Global Classrooms to connect with students outside of Atlanta, such as in Mexico City, Mexico, and Bogota, Columbia, where companies have already expressed interest in the program. “We’re not just bringing in students from other countries; we’re offering the program there. The idea behind that is that the firms in those countries are going through the same data science and data analytics questions,” explains Chellappa.

Students will still enjoy the intimate small-class-size nature of the program because the compulsory residencies will allow the international students to experience the cohort in person.

“In the xMSBA, we not only preserve the cohort nature from the students’ perspective, but we also have the ability to cross-pollinate people who are actually working in the industry. They’re learning not only from their professors, but they’ll also be learning from each other in terms of how to do projects for their firms,” says Chellappa.

They’ll have an opportunity to learn best practices as they go through the program.

Ram Chellappa

A New Concentration in AI

The use of artificial intelligence in business has skyrocketed over the past few years, and in order to properly leverage this sophisticated technology, organizations need the expertise of educated, trained employees. In response to this ever-growing need, the full-time MS in Business Analytics will offer a new technically advanced track called AI in Business, starting in Fall 2023.

Based on ability and interest, students who complete the core curriculum of the MSBA degree have the opportunity to be guided towards advanced courses in applying artificial intelligence to business.

Whereas the current curriculum focuses on the intersection of business, data, and technology, producing top-notch business data scientists, the AI concentration will go further. Courses for the AI in Business track will cover advanced topics such as deep learning, reinforcement learning, AI at scale, and advanced network analytics.

The MSBA program is responding to a need from the industry, student population, and interested applicants for advanced topics in the application of AI in business.

Ram Chellappa

In addition to meeting the needs of the industries where students end up—as well as the students themselves—this new track also aligns with Emory University’s AI.Humanity initiative, explains Chellappa, who also sits on the advisory committee of AI.Humanity.  

“Our stakeholders are the students, industries where we place them, and the larger university mission and agenda, and this new track meets a number of needs,” says Chellappa. “The launch of this track also enables our students to be more attractive to advanced tech firms on the West Coast, like Google and Facebook.”

Learn more about Emory’s full-time MS in Business Analytics for early career professionals or Emory’s advanced part-time MS in Business Analytics for Working Professionals.

The post Goizueta Launches New MS in Business Analytics for Working Professionals (xMSBA) and Expands Existing MSBA Program with AI in Business Track appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.