Building AI foundations for the future
Human conversation revolves around principles of active listening and thoughtful follow-ups.
So, when Gavin Holt, CFO at Proxima Health System, answered an information request with an inquiry of his own, students in AI Foundations for Managers were forced to re-evaluate their own understanding of the challenges at hand.
The oddity? Holt isn’t a person; he’s an AI bot designed to replicate natural human interaction.
Hear from students who have taken the course
“My sections take a ‘learning by doing’ approach to AI. We build agents — the fastest-growing AI application transforming how companies operate — but that's just the starting point,” says Associate Professor Sébastien Martin, who leads the five-week lab that immerses students in the fundamentals of artificial intelligence. “Through these hands-on projects, we explore the full landscape of generative AI: what's happening now, what's coming next and what MBAs need to know to stay ahead.”
Augmenting social impact with AI
Richa Jatia ’26 One-Year MBA has lived and breathed social impact for as long as she can remember. The AI Foundations course presented an opportunity to marry her role as founder and CEO of Atmasantosh Foundation — a nonprofit that provides scholarships and mentorship to underserved students in India — with what she sees as the future of AI-augmented support.
“This course was a gamechanger for me,” says Jatia. “It opened a whole new set of possibilities for applying AI in real-world projects. I wouldn’t have known these tools existed or discovered that someone like me, with a non-technical background, could actually build something functional from scratch.”
In a matter of weeks, Jatia took an idea and turned it into an AI chatbot that automatically sends personalized monthly check-in messages and analyzes student replies to assess mood, risk and context. The chatbot either offers appropriate self-help resources or escalates concerning cases to staff via email, keeping humans in the loop for sensitive issues. Her final pitch presentation is among dozens highlighted in an online video showcase.
“One of the things that makes this course stand out is Professor Martin’s contagious passion. He explains the toughest concepts in a way that clicks and keeps you engaged throughout,” says Jatia. “Most importantly, you get to build something meaningful for yourself. Creating a project that I was genuinely passionate about made the learning stick. If you want tangible skills, hands-on experience with AI and a lot of fun, this is the course for you.”
AI Foundations for Managers has also garnered attention from companies like Bain & Company, which has asked Martin to share job opportunities with class participants.
Learning how companies implement AI
When Martin launched the AI Foundations for Managers class in 2025, he anchored it in a toolset that includes a case study requiring students to actively pull information from a collection of AI bots. The current case is “AgentOps at Proxima Health,” and the goal is to help students better understand how companies implement AI in practice. It emphasizes that success is not only about the technical tool itself, but also about change management, employee concerns about job security and the broader organizational and human dimensions of AI adoption.
“The case is one of many tools that students are exposed to and it requires them to develop reasonable solutions by determining what data is needed and then extract that information from AI chat bots,” says Martin, who worked with Assistant Professor Daniela Hurtado Lange to develop the approach.
Irina Brian Talty MBA ’26 says Martin brings to life the essential vocabulary and conceptual framework to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
“The course really changed the way that I think about AI by prompting me to consider it through more of a strategic lens,” she says. “It also got me thinking about how to train people to use artificial intelligence in a way that makes sure they feel supported and not that they are going to be replaced by AI.”
The five-week lab provides hands-on experience in every lecture, while Martin introduces various tools meant to guide business leaders of the future.
“My favorite part was building my own AI agent and using what we learned each week to solve real-life problems,” says Rene Perla MBA ’26. “The class was super powerful and showed me how AI agents can be used to solve problems and automate workflows in the business environment.”
Research into practice
Martin’s research examines the interface between humans and algorithms in public-sector operations and online platforms. It focuses on prescriptive analytics and is motivated by real-world impact. Before coming to Northwestern, he designed Lyft's dispatch algorithm, which increased drivers' yearly revenue by tens of millions of dollars. He also optimized the school transportation systems of Boston and San Francisco, enabling millions of dollars to be reinvested every year in children's education while increasing fairness.
At Kellogg, he is an associate professor of operations and explores the use of generative AI in education. A case study developed for Martin’s Operations Management course (featured in the Wall Street Journal), as well as the Proxima Health case, are currently being used by multiple professors and have taken on a life of their own beyond any single course. His exploration of generative AI also led to the creation of Kai, an AI teaching assistant at Kellogg, which has been used as a learning tool by more than 1,000 students.
“AI is moving so fast that I feel like the best way to learn about it is to use it and use it as much as possible,” says Martin. “Working with AI is often about creativity and domain expertise and a lot less about technical ability. One goal of the AI Foundations course is for every student to leave being unafraid to build new things within the ever-evolving AI landscape.”
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