SPECIAL TOPICS - People Analytics: AI, S

OVERVIEW: In this course, students will explore how people analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged to align HR and talent strategy with organizational performance and long-term workforce transformation. As AI and other advanced analytics become embedded in core workforce systems, students will examine how data-driven decision-making operates across hiring, performance management, learning, job design, and organizational culture. The course integrates strategy, organizational behavior, and data science to help students understand how analytics can drive measurable impact while strengthening trust, fairness, and human-centered leadership in the digital workplace. Students will develop a critical perspective on the use of AI-enabled systems in workforce management and will learn how to assess whether analytics practices promote responsible governance, ethical integrity, and sustainable competitive advantage in an evolving regulatory and global landscape.

CONTENT & GOALS: Through case-based discussion, experiential exercises, team-based projects, and guest lectures from senior leaders at Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, students will develop the analytical and strategic skills required to design and evaluate people analytics initiatives. Topics include workforce data fundamentals; AI-enabled hiring and talent development; performance analytics; digital feedback systems; learning, reskilling, and workforce augmentation; AI–human systems interaction; organizational culture; and the intersection of ethics, regulation, governance, global norms, data privacy and other regulatory regimes that govern data collection & use across jurisdictions (including frameworks such as the EU AI Act, GDPR, among others), cybersecurity, fairness, and responsible technology use. Students will gain practical exposure to predictive modeling concepts, bias assessment frameworks, network analysis, and diagnostic visualization techniques, while focusing on translating insights into strategic action.

LOGISTICS: This course is an elective in the MS Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS) program and open to all graduate students. It is particularly relevant to students interested in strategy, leadership, and the future of work. The course meets online once per week. No prerequisites or background in advanced statistics are required.