No technical expertise is required — only a desire to lead with insight, foresight, and purpose. This program is designed for executives who drive organizational performance and strategic decision-making, including:

• C-suite leaders and general managers and seeking to embed AI into their organization’s strategy and operations
• Mid- to senior-level executives responsible for driving application and outcomes
• Transformation, innovation, analytics and product leaders tasked with leading cross-functional AI initiatives
• Risk, legal, compliance and governance leaders shaping responsible AI policies and oversight
• Consultants and investors shaping AI-driven business models and advising clients on enterprise transformation

• Differentiate where AI creates advantage vs. noise, and recognize its capability limits to prioritize investments
• Decide when AI should automate, answer or advise, and where leaders must retain judgment — by clarifying what humans still do better than bots
• Stress-test AI outputs and agentic workflows, diagnose failure modes and design human-in-the-loop controls that calibrate trust
• Construct a responsible adoption plan from pilot to scale and leave with a presentation-ready roadmap for immediate use

Master the Strategic Foundations of AI
Build the foundation: what AI is, how it works and where it adds value. Learn to separate signals from noise and prioritize high-return opportunities.

Strengthen Human Judgment in Human–AI Workflows
Use experiments to clarify what humans still do better than machines, then apply the 3 A’s lens to decide when AI should automate, answer or advise — and where leaders must retain decision ownership.

Calibrate Trust and Prevent Overreliance
Recognize where AI outputs are compelling but fragile, anticipate failures and specify human controls (roles, checks, decision rights) that protect accountability while improving speed and quality.

Lead AI Adoption with Confidence
Apply practical frameworks to vet opportunities, mitigate risks and integrate AI into core business processes with measurable impact — from pilot to scale.

Govern and Communicate AI Responsibly
Navigate the ethical, regulatory and organizational challenges of AI implementation to build frameworks that promote transparency, trust and sustainable change across the enterprise.

Brian Uzzi - Academic Director; Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change Co-Director, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)

Liz Gerber - Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, McCormick School of Engineering

Matthew Groh - Donald P. Jacobs Scholar & Assistant Professor of Management & Operations

Sébastien Martin - Associate Professor of Operations

Adam Waytz - Professor of Management & Organizations