Harvard Employs HeyGen AI Avatars in Startup Bootcamp

Harvard Business School is expanding its educational reach by incorporating synthetic instructors into its curriculum. The institution has partnered with video-generation startup HeyGen to create digital avatars of its faculty for the HBS Foundry, an eight-week startup bootcamp priced at $699. While human instructors still lead weekly live sessions, these AI clones are tasked with evaluating student business pitches and simulating board meetings.

The initiative shifted toward video avatars after an initial trial. According to project director Katharina Rings, the school originally planned to use a text-based chatbot, but early student feedback indicated a strong preference for a more guided, interactive experience. Despite some general student skepticism toward AI in academia, participants in the Foundry program have responded positively to the digital guides. Jeff Bussgang, a co-founder of Flybridge Capital and an HBS instructor whose likeness was cloned, admitted his virtual counterpart felt a bit "creepy" but acknowledged that his students love the tool.

A trial of the technology by New York Times reporter Sarah Kessler highlighted both the potential and the current limitations of these virtual mentors. Kessler pitched a hypothetical business concept, "Uber for bananas," to Bussgang's digital clone. While the avatar successfully analyzed the pitch, it maintained a "noticeably frozen smile" throughout the interaction. Both the real Bussgang and his AI counterpart ultimately rejected the business idea.

For educational practitioners and program designers, this deployment demonstrates how generative video can scale personalized feedback in professional training. Instead of relying solely on expensive, asynchronous human grading or static text interfaces, programs can now offer dynamic, simulated environments for high-stakes practice. It suggests a future where professional coaching is hybrid, blending live human mentorship with highly accessible, on-demand synthetic experts to handle repetitive training scenarios.