Highlights

Harvard Business School’s eight-week, $699 HBS Foundry bootcamp for entrepreneurs combines weekly live sessions with AI-generated instructor avatars to give individualized feedback during practice pitches and board meetings. The avatars were produced by the startup HeyGen and supplement — rather than replace — live instructors. Participants reported appreciating the guided, interactive feedback the avatars provide, even when the likenesses felt slightly unsettling. The initiative reflects HBS’s effort to expand reach while maintaining personalized learning experiences.

Sentiment Analysis

• The overall sentiment toward the program is mixed-to-positive, balancing enthusiasm for enhanced accessibility and personalized coaching with mild unease about the realism of AI likenesses. Many participants praised the avatars for giving concrete practice feedback that complements weekly live instruction. Critics note a slightly uncanny quality in the digital replicas of instructors, and some students remain skeptical of AI in educational settings. The program team adapted the feature based on student feedback, shifting from a simple chatbot concept to more structured avatar interactions, which boosted acceptance among bootcamp attendees.

Article Text

Harvard Business School’s HBS Foundry bootcamp has introduced AI-generated avatars of its instructors as part of an eight-week program aimed at entrepreneurs. Priced at $699, the bootcamp retains weekly live sessions with faculty while adding AI-driven avatars — created by the firm HeyGen — to deliver individualized feedback during mock pitches and simulated board meetings. The avatars are intended to offer practical, on-demand critique that complements the human-led classroom experience.

The avatars function during practice sessions, observing student presentations and offering responses designed to mimic instructor guidance. Organizers emphasize that live instructors remain central to the curriculum; the AI is meant to scale feedback and provide more opportunities for iterative practice. One reporter who tested the feature attempted a pitch to an AI-generated version of a well-known investor and found the virtual response useful, though the avatar’s expression occasionally felt artificial.

Initial plans for the technology emphasized a chatbot-like interaction, but after a trial release, students requested a more structured, guided experience. In response, the program’s developers refined the avatars’ behaviors and prompts to align more closely with typical coaching scenarios. This evolution from a conversational agent to a focused feedback tool appears to have increased student acceptance and practical value within the bootcamp setting.

Participant reactions highlight a nuanced reception: many appreciated the convenience and frequency of feedback the avatars provide, saying it helped them iterate on pitch content and delivery between live sessions. Others pointed out an uncanny valley effect in some digital likenesses, describing them as slightly "creepy" while still useful. Program leaders regard that discomfort as manageable and note that learners often prioritize consistent, actionable critique over perfect realism.

The deployment illustrates a broader trend in higher education and professional training: using AI to extend instructor reach without fully replacing human teaching. By integrating avatars into a blended format, HBS seeks to preserve the relational and evaluative strengths of live instruction while leveraging AI for scalable practice opportunities. This hybrid approach aims to deliver personalized practice at scale, addressing demand for more hands-on feedback in entrepreneurial training.

Critics of AI in education continue to raise ethical and pedagogical questions, such as concerns over likeness consent, the limits of simulated judgment, and the potential normalization of automated coaching. HBS and HeyGen appear to be navigating these concerns by centering the technology as a supplement and iterating based on student input. Early reports from participants suggest the avatar feature has been a pragmatic enhancement for many, helping to reinforce lessons from live sessions and increase the number of realistic practice opportunities available within the program.

Overall, the HBS Foundry experiment showcases a pragmatic application of avatar technology: it amplifies feedback frequency and accessibility for entrepreneurs practicing pitches, while keeping real instructors responsible for substantive teaching and mentorship. The effort underscores both the potential benefits and the perceptual challenges of deploying humanlike AI in education.

Key Insights Table