Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors

Harvard Business School’s eight‑week HBS Foundry bootcamp, priced at $699, now incorporates AI avatars generated by HeyGen to give feedback on entrepreneurs’ practice pitches and simulated board meetings. The avatars supplement weekly live instructor sessions, handling the formative critique while humans lead the lectures.

Project director Katharina Rings originally imagined the avatars as simple chatbots, but after a pilot run students asked for more structured guidance. Participants reported appreciating the avatars’ consistent availability, whereas Jeff Bussgang, whose likeness powers one avatar, described his digital twin as “creepy” yet noted that his students enjoy the interaction. A New York Times trial showed the avatar delivering feedback with a noticeably static smile.

• AI avatars created by HeyGen (no public model architecture disclosed)
• Integrated into HBS Foundry bootcamp: 8 weeks, $699 fee
• Provide feedback during practice pitches and board‑meeting simulations
• Live instructor sessions remain weekly; avatars handle formative critique
• Student response: positive; instructor response: mixed (creepy but valued)

Why this matters

Fact: The bootcamp uses commercially available avatar technology from HeyGen to scale personalized feedback in a high‑cost executive education program. Inference: By offloading routine critique to AI avatars, the model may reduce instructor workload while preserving perceived instructional quality, suggesting a potential pathway for other costly professional‑training programs to adopt similar human‑AI hybrid feedback loops without altering core curriculum.