Foundations of AI Strategy and Ethics

This unit introduces core concepts, capabilities, and implications of artificial intelligence for business management and innovation. Students will learn how AI systems work (including LLMs), survey major AI modalities and value chains, and assess strategic, ethical, and workforce impacts to prepare for applied design and implementation in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze foundational AI concepts and modalities (machine learning, conversational AI, image generation, and decision-making systems) and explain how each supports business use cases
• Apply a basic AI value-chain framework to map data, models, infrastructure, and product touchpoints for a hypothetical business scenario
• Demonstrate understanding of how large language models (LLMs) learn and operate by describing their inputs, training processes, and likely failure modes in a written or diagrammed explanation
• Evaluate ethical, regulatory, and workforce implications of generative AI (including bias, privacy, and new operating models) and recommend mitigation or adoption strategies for organizational decision-makers