HBS Launches $699 Startup Program with Professor AI Clones

Harvard Business School has introduced AI avatars of professors into its eight-week, $699 HBS Foundry startup program to listen to project pitches, simulate sales calls, and host mock board meetings. Live sessions are still conducted by human instructors, while the AI clones primarily provide feedback during simulation exercises, with over 100 universities reportedly participating in the testing phase.

Confirmed

• The program is priced at $699 for eight weeks, with AI avatars created by HeyGen
• AI clones are used for simulating pitches, sales calls, and board meetings, while human instructors handle weekly live sessions
• @michaelchchoi stated that over 100 universities are participating in tests, aiming to expand the reach of entrepreneurship education
• @jonerp mentioned that although students found the digital avatars slightly uncanny, they were satisfied with the guidance and feedback provided; the project initially planned to use a chatbot format

Why it matters

• This is a landmark case of a top business school integrating AI digital humans at scale into formal teaching products, demonstrating a hybrid model of "AI clone assistance + human live streaming"
• The lower pricing and multi-university testing indicate a commercial intent to lower the barrier to top-tier business education and expand the audience

2026-08-22 ~ 2026-08-24 · 5 related posts

• Harvard Business School Launches AI Professor Clones for Pitches, Sales Calls, Board Meetings — Polymarket · 2026-08-22
• [source] Harvard sells $699 course taught by AI clones of faculty — michaelchchoi · 2026-08-23
• [source] Harvard's $699 startup bootcamp features AI instructor avatars — emmanuelvivier · 2026-08-23
• [source] Harvard's startup bootcamp uses AI instructor avatars — jonerp · 2026-08-24

1 near-duplicate retellings: soumitrashukla9