Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School (HBS). He is the (co-)founder of several Harvard-wide research and educational initiatives centered around the intersection of technological innovation, artificial intelligence (AI), and company strategy. He is the co-founder and chair of The Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard, founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, and the principal investigator of the NASA Tournament Lab. He is also the co-founder of the Harvard Business Analytics Program, a university-wide online program transforming executives into data-savvy leaders.

Lakhani has published over 150 scholarly articles and case studies and is known for his original scholarship on open-source software and open innovation. he has pioneered the use of field experiments to help solve innovation-related challenges while simultaneously generating rigorous research in partnership with organizations like NASA, Harvard Catalyst, the Boston Consulting Group, Procter & Gamble, and the Broad Institute. His digital transformation research investigates the role of analytics and AI in reshaping business and operating models. He coauthored Competing in the Age of AI (2020), an award-winning book published by HBR Press. He has developed six online courses that have educated thousands of executives on AI strategy, technology-driven transformation, and entrepreneurship.

Lakhani is an advisor to senior executives at leading companies. He serves as an academic partner at Flagship Pioneering; member of the board of directors of Mozilla Corp., Mozilla.ai, and VideaHealth; and advisor to several AI-based startups. He is the co-founder of Aspire Institute, a nonprofit that aims to transform the lives of first-in-family college students worldwide.

Prior to coming to HBS, he served as a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Lakhani has also worked in sales, marketing, and new-product development roles at GE HealthCare and was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.

Lakhani was awarded his doctorate in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds a master of science in technology and policy from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and management from McMaster University in Canada. He is a recipient of the Aga Khan Foundation International Scholarship and a doctoral fellowship from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.