MIT Sloan Masterclass Explores AI's Transformative Power

Artificial intelligence has become one of the most influential technologies of the 21st century. It's changing how businesses compete, entrepreneurs build products, employees work, and consumers interact with the digital world. To provide a practical understanding of this field, MIT Sloan School of Management is launching a three-part masterclass featuring Rama Ramakrishnan, Professor of the Practice in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Ramakrishnan draws on decades of experience as an educator, entrepreneur, data scientist, and technology executive to examine AI not only as a technological breakthrough but also as a force reshaping industries, economies, and society. He explores AI's broader implications for business strategy, entrepreneurship, employment, innovation, and economic growth.

Ramakrishnan has a unique perspective that bridges academia and industry. Before joining MIT Sloan, he spent over 20 years as a technology entrepreneur and executive, founding and helping build several software companies that were later acquired by Oracle, Demandware, and Salesforce. He served as Senior Vice President at Salesforce and Chief Data Scientist for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, where he led Salesforce Einstein for Commerce, the company's analytics and machine learning platform.

The masterclass is available in three parts. Part 1 examines the evolution of artificial intelligence, explaining how decades of research laid the foundation for today's AI boom and why recent advances in computing power, data availability, and machine learning have accelerated adoption across virtually every industry.