Business Matters

In coming months, Business Matters will explore the development of AI in business operations, research and education. Our first installment details the college’s leadership in navigating AI’s powerful impacts. 

The race for better artificial intelligence tools may come down to how well they address persistent needs in business. From marketing and customer analytics to human resources, companies are turning to AI to increase efficiency and improve day-to-day operations. 

The impact will be comparable, experts say, to the introduction of the PC, the internet and the cell phone. 

While the use of tools such as Microsoft’s CoPilot, Open AI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini puts tech in the headlights, the focus for the college remains squarely on humans. 

“We center people in all of the work we do around artificial intelligence,” said Inara Scott, Gomo Family Professor and senior associate dean. “We ask questions like: How can technology help us build more human-centered and engaged workplaces? How can we use technology to further shared prosperity?  

“We are teaching our students to employ technology ethically, using it alongside people to help them achieve their goals, not to replace but to empower them.” 

Researchers have used basic AI such as machine learning and neural networks for decades, but the rise of “large language models” and generative AI are making these tools as indispensable as the spreadsheet.  

“They are going to be part of students’ working environment going forward,” said Bret Carpenter, senior instructor who is coordinating AI strategies in the college. 

Take, for example, a common HR task: how to keep employees informed about company policies and resources. Businesses typically use a variety of tools to meet that need: booklets, training sessions, online FAQs and internal networks. 

Now, they may be turning to chatbots, software designed to mimic human conversation. But which ones are best? How well do they perform for each task? At what cost? And how should these tools and the data they require be managed? 

For Portland General Electric (PGE), a search for answers led last spring to Professor Bin Zhu’s analytics capstone class. Students broke into two teams to consider how chatbots could meet the needs of PGE’s more than 2,800 employees who work in offices and in the field on the company’s power distribution system. Over the course of the semester, the class developed a detailed framework for evaluating commercially available chatbots according to PGE’s criteria. They ran evaluations on chatbots from Microsoft, Google, OpenAI and other developers. 

The PGE project was not the first for Zhu. She has advised other student teams working with Daimler Trucks North America and Burgerville. Within the college, students also are developing a chatbot to help their peers navigate the complexities of program requirements and course options. 

Other faculty members are digging into the use of AI tools in employee performance evaluation, social media analytics and vendor negotiations. 

For example, employees tend to distrust automated performance evaluation systems. Even as AI-based evaluation expands, managers play a crucial role in working “carefully, vigilantly and conscientiously” to align employee behavior with company policies, wrote Keith Leavitt, professor of management, recently in Academy of Management Review, a top management journal. 

Social media analysis may offer clues for marketing and product development. Xiaohui Chang and Tim Kaskela, associate professor and assistant professor of business analytics respectively, use AI tools to analyze social media data. Chang evaluates the spread of misinformation while Kaskela focuses on user sentiments and content analysis. 

AI can assist in one of the most difficult aspects of business development: negotiating contracts for supplies and personnel.  

Laura Rees, associate professor of organizational behavior, delves into socially interactive aspects of AI, including how it presents emotional cues. In class, her students gain experience in both negotiating with AI and designing their own AI negotiation agents. 

For Scott, the rapid changes in the AI landscape bring uncertainty, but also opportunity. 

 “We know there’s a lot of concern about how AI will be used in the future and believe business has a unique and important role to play in finding ways to ensure that it works toward the greater good,” Scott said. “This is not just about computers and software for us — it’s about how we can create the brightest possible future using these amazing new tools.” 

-Story by Nick Houtman