2026 MIT IDE Annual Report

ANNUAL REPORT 2025
EXPLORING
AI’S IMPACT

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES, UNCOVERING OPPORTUNITIES
ANNUAL REPORT 2025
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 Letter from the Director
3 2025: Year In Review
5 Our Research / Awards and Recognition
9 Partnerships and Corporate Membership
11 Events
13 In the Classroom
15 The IDE Team
16 Supporters
17
Closing Thoughts from the
Executive Director
In 2025, companies started asking
tough questions about AI: Where
are the expected productivity gains?
Where’s the ROI? What will be the longterm
impact on my workforce?
The IDE’s eight research groups each
explored some aspect of AI last year,
seeking to uncover friction points and
pinpoint where human-AI interactions
succeed or fail. Much like today’s
business leaders, our researchers want
to understand how AI shapes decision-making,
alters team dynamics and
changes the way we work. I too focused
on AI, reporting on the expansion of
AI search and its implications on information
markets and human judgment,
as well as experiments documenting
the art and science of human-AI collaboration
and the degree to which people
trust AI-generated information.
In addition, the IDE deepened its
research capacity in 2025 by launching
two new research groups: AI in
Financial Markets and Decision Making
and Data, Privacy and Markets.
Both groups explore how technology
and online interactions are shaping
human perceptions and critical thinking.
We also helped to launch the MIT
GenAI Lab, which connects students
with organizations seeking solutions
to their Generative AI implementation
challenges.
Beyond AI, the IDE continued to lead
the conversation about the business
applications of quantum computing,
publishing the first Quantum Index
Report and hosting the Business of
Quantum Summit. I was also proud
to work with a talented team on the
Crypto Decentralization Framework and
Dashboard, which helps investors and
policymakers track whether crypto is
truly delivering on its decentralization
promises.
As 2025 showed us, there still remains
uncertainty around how AI will
transform businesses in the long term.
The IDE will continue to deliver insights
that offer clarity and help businesses
uncover new opportunities.
SINAN ARAL
DIRECTOR, MIT INITIATIVE ON THE DIGITAL
ECONOMY & PROFESSOR, MIT SLOAN
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2025: YEAR IN REVIEW
FROM AI TO QUANTUM
& BEYOND
Whether developing new online tools or hosting conversations about emerging
tech trends, the IDE had its finger on the pulse of business and technology.
2025 MIT QUANTUM INDEX REPORT
Spearheaded by IDE researcher Jonathan Ruane and in
collaboration with Accenture, the NSF and the Center
for Quantum Networks, the 2025 Quantum Index Report
provided a comprehensive, data-driven assessment of
the state of quantum technologies. This impressive,
130-page report created an important benchmark and
drove the conversation around quantum funding, policy
and research.
INTERNATIONAL AI NEGOTIATION COMPETITION
In this new event, participants developed and tested
negotiation bots that were rated on value creation,
value claiming, subjective value and efficiency. The
competition included a bot-vs.-human event in which the
human participants negotiated with a subset of the bots,
challenging this technology’s limits.
AI AGENT “PERSONALITY PAIRING”
Sinan Aral and Harang Ju’s research paper, Collaborating with AI Agents: Field
Experiments on Teamwork, Productivity, and Performance, assessed how well
humans worked with AI agents that demonstrated different personality traits. The
researchers found that “pairing” the personalities of humans and AI agents created
the most effective digital-human teams for workflow quality, productivity and output.
THE QUANTUM ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE CALCULATOR
IDE Research Group Lead Neil Thompson and IDE researcher
Jayson Lynch worked in collaboration with Accenture to
develop this free open-access online tool. It estimates when
quantum computers will beat comparably priced traditional
computers at certain tasks—and whether the investment would
be worthwhile.
AI’S IMPACT ON CRITICAL THINKING
Are people becoming too reliant on AI? Eric So, leader of
the AI in Financial Markets and Decision Making research
group, is examining what happens when professionals
become deeply dependent on AI for completing work tasks.
He’s also looking at the quiet trade-offs that accompany AI
convenience. To that end, So is collecting firsthand accounts
from heavy AI users who’ve noticed subtle shifts in their own
capabilities and thinking processes. The study is part of So’s
larger body of research on how AI tools are reshaping the way
we work and think.
EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS AT CODE 2025
The 12th Conference on Digital Experimentation at MIT
(CODE@MIT) brought together researchers from academia,
industry and government to advance experimental design and
analysis. Participants explored how digital platforms enable
large-scale randomized experiments that reveal insights
into human behavior across health, political mobilization,
consumer demand and information diffusion. Also discussed
were best practices for causal inference in complex digital
environments.
DECODING THE HEALTH OF CRYPTO
MIT IDE Director Sinan Aral and fellow researchers Harang Ju,
Madhav Kumar and Ehsan Valavi released a comprehensive
framework to measure decentralization across seven major
crypto ecosystems. The Crypto Decentralization Framework
and the accompanying dashboard is hosted by the IDE and
will inform researchers, policymakers and practitioners about
crypto ecosystems.
2025 IDE PLATFORM STRATEGY SUMMIT
The 13th edition of this event assembled
business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers
and scholars to examine how platforms are
reshaping global commerce. Sessions explored
topics including AI agents and data ownership,
platform economics as geopolitical tools,
and the digital infrastructure needs of energy
transition. The event was followed up by our
2025 IDE Platform Strategy Summit Report.
EXPANDING
OUR REACH
The IDE continues to grow
on social media, and we now
have nearly 40,000 followers.
In addition, our researchers
have amassed impressive
audiences of their own to lead
the conversation on the latest
business technologies.
Success on LinkedIn
• Increased LinkedIn
followers by 35%
• Launched a monthly
LinkedIn newsletter
• Gained over 5,000
subscribers
The IDE’s Research Impact
Since 2020, researchers at
the IDE have placed their work
in increasingly prominent
publications and were
frequently cited in other work.
• 440,000 citations
• 1,600 publications
• The number of citations is
growing year-over-year
IDE Research Fellow & Visiting Scholar Geoffrey
Parker (far left) leads a panel discussion at the
2025 Platform Strategy Summit.
3
Photo: Giro Studio
4

OUR RESEARCH
RESEARCH AT OUR CORE
The IDE is committed to fostering research that directly addresses today’s most
pressing business challenges. In 2025, we launched two new research groups:
CONTINUED WORK FROM
IDE RESEARCH GROUPS
DEAN ECKLES
WILLIAM F. POUNDS PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT
& PROFESSOR OF MARKETING
RECOGNITION
& AWARDS
ERIC SO
SLOAN DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS &
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
AI IN FINANCIAL MARKETS AND
DECISION MAKING
As companies explore agentic AI, it raises
questions about how human skills, critical
thinking and decision making are affected when
we delegate judgement-based tasks to AI.
Led by Eric So, this new research group
studies how AI is reshaping decision-making
in financial markets and beyond. The team is
examining how people integrate these tools
across decision contexts, with the larger goal
of revealing when AI strengthens thinking—or
substitutes for it.
The group has already examined human
perceptions of AI advisors, exploring whether
people prefer AI over human advisors. Another
study is assessing AI’s impact on the U.S. longterm
fiscal outlook.
In addition, the research group’s leader, So, has
a forthcoming book, The Collision: What Does AI
Do to Us? Set for publication in October 2026,
the book promises to be a revelatory examination
of how AI is already reshaping human
thought—with implications for anyone wishing
to harness AI’s power to amplify, rather than
erode, their capacity. In the book, So integrates
his MIT research findings with engaging storytelling,
making the book a captivating read for
parents, professionals and anyone who wants
to use AI sensibly.
ALESSANDRO ACQUISTI
T. WILSON (1953) PROFESSOR IN
MANAGEMENT
DATA, MARKETS AND PRIVACY
This group, led by Alessandro Acquisti, focuses
on how consumers make privacy decisions and
balance personal benefits with concerns over
privacy.
This past summer, the research group
launched the Internet Behavior Experiment
(IBE). It’s the first large-scale randomized field
study designed to examine online behaviors
and user outcomes while also controlling
what ads participants see, whether they’re
tracked, and how they’re targeted. Consenting
participants install client software that collects
rich telemetry data related to multiple online
behaviors, including browsing, searching,
shopping and interactions with large language
models (LLMs).
The IBE’s goal: allow social-science and
computer-science researchers to closely
examine how online tracking, targeting
and advertising impact a vast array of user
behaviors and outcomes. The IBE is an ongoing
experiment, and we keep recruiting more
participants every day.
NEW DATA AND ANALYTICS
This research group, led by Dean Eckles, continued its work examining
how digital technologies and social networks shape human behavior
across political mobilization, consumer demand and public health.
In 2025, the group’s researchers focused on the effects of online
relationships. They revealed how mutual connections through social
media create an “invisible handshake” that drives new relationships
online. In addition, research on misinformation correction showed that
people are more likely to respond to fact-checks from others who share
their political views and follow them on social media. The work reveals
how people often feel obligated to engage with their followers—even
when those followers are correcting their false information.
ANDREW MCAFEE
CO-DIRECTOR, MIT IDE & PRINCIPAL
RESEARCH SCIENTIST
TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS
Led by Andrew McAfee, this research group explores how organizations
can structure themselves to thrive in an economy shaped by
digital technology.
It is not merely a matter of staying competitive–in fact, the financial
health of organizations depends on it. Corporate AI investment
reached $252.3 billion in 2024, with private investment climbing
nearly 45% year-over-year, representing more than thirteenfold
growth since 2014.
These numbers mean businesses across every sector now operate
with assets that evolve and improve at remarkable speed. Moore’s
Law, once confined to high-tech industries, now influences the entire
economy. Innovation accelerates. Products become obsolete faster.
Companies must be more agile and responsive than ever before.
Multiple IDE leaders and research fellows
were named Ranked Thinkers on
the Thinkers50 list, which recognizes
the top leaders in management thinking.
IDE Co-Directors Andrew McAfee and
Sinan Aral were both recognized for their
thought leadership on the modern technology
landscape. Aral was also an invited
speaker at the Thinker50 Summit, held
in London in November. In addition, IDE
Digital Fellows Marshall Van Alstyne and
Geoff Parker were recognized by Thinkers50
for their work on two-sided models
and analysis of platform technology.
Dean Eckles, leader of the IDE’s New
Data and Analytics research group, was
promoted to Full Professor at MIT Sloan.
Eric So, leader of the IDE’s AI in Financial
Markets research group, received a 2025
MIT Teaching with Digital Technology
Award. The award, student-nominated
and student-judged, recognizes faculty
and instructors who have used digital
technology to improve teaching and
learning at MIT.
Many organizations that dominated in the 20th century have struggled
to keep pace. They face pressure from younger competitors,
many emerging from Silicon Valley, that are digital-first and think
differently from their predecessors. McAfee’s group identifies what
sets these new entrants apart. The group is also revealing the most
effective strategies that established companies can follow to com-
IDE Co-Director Andrew McAfee was a
moderator at the 2025 World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was his
11th year attending the event.
pete and adapt.
5 6

CONTINUED WORK FROM
IDE RESEARCH GROUPS
RECOGNITION
& AWARDS
JOHN HORTON
CHRYSLER ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF
MANAGEMENT & ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR,
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
AI, MARKETPLACES AND LABOR
ECONOMICS
This group, led by John Horton, examines
information systems, market design, labor
economics and organizational economics,
particularly within online markets.
In 2025, the research group examined what
happens when employers use AI tools to write
job posts. While these posts saved time and
advertised for more positions, they didn’t lead
to more job matches. Yet the researchers also
found that job seekers prefer AI-selected jobs
over those they rank themselves.
APPLIED AI
SINAN ARAL
DIRECTOR, MIT INITIATIVE ON THE
DIGITAL ECONOMY & DAVID AUSTIN
PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT,
MARKETING, IT & DATA SCIENCE
Understanding how AI affects power, scalability
and productivity is this research group’s focal
point. The group’s research not only delves
into the applications of AI but also considers
the promise of an inclusive and prosperous
digital future.
In 2025, the group, led by Sinan Aral, examined
the rapid rise and impact of AI search, crypto
decentralization, teaching LLMs to discern
exceptions, optimization of AI negotiations and
explored how to maximize the productivity and
performance benefits of AI agents.
HUMAN-FIRST AI
RENÉE RICHARDSON GOSLINE
SENIOR LECTURER IN MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
This research group, led by Renée Richardson Gosline, examines
human-AI interaction through a lens of behavioral science. The
larger aim is to create AI systems that prioritize human welfare
while maximizing the benefits of collaboration between people and
technology.
The group’s 2025 research explored whether GenAI and machine
learning can improve decision-making across the customer
experience, marketing and finance. This included asking: Does
understanding how AI functions change how people interact with
a tool and trust its recommendations? How can beneficial friction
support our critical thinking abilities and reduce overreliance when
using AI to make decisions?
Expected Parrot, a company co-founded
by IDE researcher John Horton and
his wife, Robin Horton, was part of the
Fall 2025 batch of companies selected
for the Y Combinator startup program.
Expected Parrot helps companies
simulate customers with AI agents to
explore pricing, product, marketing,
communications and other scenarios
at scale. Y Combinator is a competitive
three-month program aimed at helping
startups.
This group also worked on a paper on
redefining work. It develops a theory of how
GenAI changes workflows and redraws
job boundaries: While the initial effects are
underwhelming, once AI quality improves, there
are abrupt labor market shifts.
Another focus area for this group is AI agents.
Researchers argue that when AI agents search,
negotiate and transact on behalf of humans,
we can expect lower transaction costs and
downstream effects. The result is changing
market boundaries, platform competition,
and enabling new market designs on digital
platforms. However, using agents in this way
could pose challenges around regulations,
pricing and congestion.
The group’s research highlights included a
study on network effects, which upended the
premise that when more people use a platform,
it becomes more valuable. Instead, researchers
found, what really drives value isn’t only the
total number of users, but also the specific
connections people have within their networks,
rewriting the economics of networks.
The Applied AI group also assessed the quality
and quantity of work done when people use
AI agents with varying levels of the Big Five
personality traits. They discovered broad and
meaningful impacts of “personality pairing,”
between humans and AI, on productivity,
performance and teamwork.
NEIL THOMPSON
PRINCIPLE RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT MIT CSAIL &
DIRECTOR OF THE FUTURETECH RESEARCH PROJECT
AI, QUANTUM AND BEYOND
This research group examines how computing technologies drive
economic growth. Led by Neil Thompson and made up of computer
scientists, engineers and economists, the group helps leaders
understand how technologies are evolving and what this means for
creating and sustaining economic prosperity.
In one study, the group looked at whether automating tasks with
AI raises or reduces the expertise required by the remaining nonautomated
tasks. This study seeks to answer an important question
for businesses implementing AI: When a task is automated with
AI, are the remaining workers more expert or less (and paid
accordingly)?
In 2025, the group also unveiled the Quantum Economic Advantage
framework and calculator to help organizations assess the
economic feasibility of solving problems with quantum computers.
CSAIL research scientist Ana Trišović
received the 2025 Breakthrough
Prize in Fundamental Physics for her
contribution to Large Hadron Collider
experiments conducted at the CERN
lab in Switzerland.
Digital Fellow Thomas Davenport and
co-author Jim Sterne published their
book, The New Science of Customer
Relationships: Delivering the Oneto-One
Promise With AI. The book
explains how GenAI can be used to
create personalized customer experiences,
moving beyond traditional marketing
to build deeper relationships.
7 8

PARTNERSHIPS & CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP
PARTNERS POWER OUR RESEARCH
The IDE is MIT Sloan’s largest research initiative. In 2025 we continued to work closely
with our partners, corporate members and individual supporters. Their grants and charitable
gifts powered the IDE’s research engine, helping us to ensure a digital economy
that benefits both people and our planet.
Our corporate members, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Netflix and Wayfair,
are a valuable part of the IDE and MIT communities. They were invited to attend and
speak at our events, offered early access to research, and facilitated collaboration with
graduate students to solve business challenges with GenAI and machine learning.
In addition, our growing community of individual supporters helped to continue our
mission of building a brighter digital future.
THE POWER OF INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT
“As the founder of Huminology, an AI job interview platform,
I'm proud to support the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.
Huminology prioritizes an exceptional candidate experience and
the responsible, fair use of AI. As our interactions with AI become
increasingly frequent and natural, we’re aligned with the IDE's
mission, ensuring a brighter digital future for everyone.”
DANIEL CHAK, MIT BS (ʼ02), MS (ʼ04)
We thank all our supporters for their commitment to the IDE, and we look forward to
working with you in 2026.
Albert Scerbo
Associate Director
Erin Palumbo
Director of Development
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF HUMAN-CENTERED AI
9
SPOTLIGHT ON
In 2025, the IDE’s collaboration with
Accenture, global solutions and services
company and IDE founding member,
pushed our knowledge of cutting-edge
technology and charted new directions
for research.
Timed with the UN’s declaration of 2025
as the International Year of Quantum,
we published the first edition of the MIT
Quantum Index Report. The report, a first
of its kind, established a benchmark for
tracking the development of the quantum
computing space. It was authored in
collaboration with Accenture and funded
by the National Science Foundation.
Through the brand new GenAI Lab class,
Accenture also worked with MIT’s future
data scientists to build prototypes of LLMbased
video analytics for manufacturing
lines and chatbots to query space asset
data—the latter winning best project of the
semester.
As we look ahead, we have identified three
important new research initiatives to explore
together in 2026: AI Personalization
and Sycophancy, Responsible AI, and the
Economic Impact of AI Automation.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Behavioural Science team
and MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy are working together
to redefine how AI is designed and used at work. Led by MIT IDE
researchers Renée Richardson Gosline and Neil Thompson, the
collaborative program tackles critical questions around AI risk and
mitigation, responsible adoption of AI tools, and the importance of
human judgement and critical thinking in high-impact decisions. This
research is helping shape how AI systems are built, adopted and
governed to better serve employees, customers and the community.
“Taking a human-centered approach to AI is essential if organizations
want to build trust and deliver real value. Our work with MIT IDE
brings together world-class behavioral science, technology and
economics to help AI deliver better experiences and outcomes for our
customers and people.”
WILL MAILER, CHIEF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENTIST,
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA
10

EVENTS
MAKING CONNECTIONS
IDE events in 2025 brought together researchers and executives to discuss
innovative ideas and explore the future of tech.
SEMINAR SERIES
Our informal lunchtime series offered sneak peeks into cutting-edge
research from MIT faculty, guest researchers and executives from
leading tech companies.
PLATFORM STRATEGY SUMMIT
Business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and scholars
gathered in July to examine how platforms are reshaping the
global economy across industries. Speakers shared insights on
AI agents and the debate over data rights, how platforms are
influencing international power dynamics, and how platforms can
help coordinate increasingly complex energy systems.
SPRING 2025 SEMINARS
Mengxin (Selene) Wang, University of Texas
at Dallas: “Large Language Models for
Market Research: A Data-Augmentation
Approach”
Alex Moehring, Purdue: “Designing Human-
AI Collaboration: A Sufficient-Statistic
Approach”
Tom Cunningham, OpenAI: “Stylized Facts
About AI Capabilities”
Sahil Loomba, MIT Sloan (IDSS): “Off-Policy
Causal Estimation in Social Networks”
FALL 2025 SEMINARS
David Rothschild, Microsoft: “Guiding the AI
Disruption to the Good Place”
Frank Nagle, MIT and the Linux Foundation:
“Generative AI and the Nature of Work”
Ruru Hoong, MIT Sloan: “Calibrated
Coarsening: Designing Information for AI-
Assisted Decisions”
Jessica Hullman, Northwestern University:
“The Value of Information in Model-
Assisted Decisions”
Access to past IDE events is just a click away. Catch up on the
conversation at events and seminars on our YouTube channel.
CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL EXPERIMENTATION (CODE)
Digital platforms have transformed how we study human
behavior, revealing new insights into health, voting, consumer
demand and information spread. The 12th CODE@MIT, held in
November, brought together people from academia, industry
and government to discuss how technology is advancing
experimental design and analysis.
BUSINESS OF QUANTUM SUMMIT
As rapid progress in quantum computing continues, industry
leaders, investors and policymakers still have many questions
about the technology, its use cases and the potential for ROI. The
inaugural Business of Quantum Summit, held in April, presented
the latest research on quantum's impact and addressed pressing
questions about quantum capabilities, timing and viability. The
summit introduced new tools and resources designed to help
innovation and strategy, as well as insights to bring clarity to this
transformative technological frontier.
Want to know more about IDE
events? Read our Special Reports.
11 12

IN THE CLASSROOM
FROM ANALYTICS TO GEN AI: EXPANDING
ACTION LEARNING AT MIT SLOAN
Continuing in our commitment to classroom
innovation, the IDE faculty again
facilitated the Analytics Lab and extended
the success of this flagship course to the
newly created GenAI Lab.
The Analytics Lab is a graduate seminar
that pairs student teams with industry
hosts. Together, they tackle complex challenges
using analytics, machine learning
and advanced analytical techniques. Led
by IDE Director Sinan Aral and MIT Sloan
Associate Professor Abdullah Almaatouq,
the Lab’s nearly 1,000 students have completed
more than 200 projects spanning
IoT, finance, healthcare and manufacturing.
The GenAI Lab was launched in spring
2025, making it MIT’s first action learning
course focused on GenAI applications. Led
by IDE Research Group Lead John Horton,
Assistant Professor Michiel Bakker and
Lecturer Tim Valicenti the course drew
students from across MIT Sloan, School of
Engineering and Media Lab.
Student teams partnered with enterprise
companies, startups and NGOs to
apply cutting-edge AI tools to realworld
business problems. The course
asked students to consider strategic
implementation and use practical problemsolving,
offering them an understanding
of the broader impact of GenAI on
organizations and society.
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
During 2025, IDE researchers worked with executive leaders through the MIT Sloan
Executive Education Programs. These courses offer hands-on learning and cutting-edge
research insights to the leaders shaping the future of business:
• AI Executive Academy
• AI for National Security Leaders
• Intention to Impact: How to Lead in
a Multicultural Economy
• Making AI Work: Machine
Intelligence for Business and
Society
• Social Media Strategy: Creating
Engagement, Insight and Action
• Machine Learning in Business
• AI: Implications for Business
Strategy
• Leading the Future of Work
• Breakthrough Customer Experience
(CX) Strategy
• Future-Ready Enterprise Academy
• Digital Business Strategy:
Harnessing Our Digital Future
2025 GEN AI LAB WINNERS
Team Accenture
• Maxime Basse
• Maya Nesen
• Brimar Olafsson
• Joseph Mezher
“Planning Operations with Space Assets”
Mentor: Brian Ulicny
GenAI Lab Judges
Andrew McAfee
Danial Mirza, MIT ’20, OpenAI
Parker McKee, Pillar VC
2025 ANALYTICS LAB WINNERS
Team Mira Intel
• Ayela Chughtai
• Lauren Montigue
• Riya Parikh
• Barath Velmurugan
“Revolutionizing Offshore Wind Turbine
Inspections”
Mentor: Jerry Grochow
Analytics Lab Judges
Bob Hedges, Visa & IDE Digital Fellow
Tod Loofbourrow, CEO ViralGains & IDE Digital Fellow
Renée Richardson Gosline
13 14

IDE TEAM & SUPPORTERS
LEADERSHIP AT ALL LEVELS
The IDE’s work is made possible by the support of its scholars, staff, corporate
members and donors.
THE IDE FACULTY LEADERSHIP
Sinan Aral
Director, IDE; Professor, MIT Sloan
Andrew McAfee
Co-Director & Principal Research
Scientist, IDE
RESEARCH GROUP LEADS
Alessandro Acquisti
Professor, MIT Sloan; leader, Data,
Markets and Privacy research group
Sinan Aral
Professor, MIT Sloan, and Director, IDE;
leader, Applied AI research group
Dean Eckles
Professor, MIT Sloan; leader, New Data
and Analytics research group
Renée Richardson Gosline
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan; leader,
Human-First AI research group
John Horton
Associate Professor, MIT Sloan; leader
of AI, Marketplaces and Labor Markets
research group
Andrew McAfee
Co-Director & Principal Research
Scientist, IDE; leader, Technology-Driven
Organizations research group
Eric So
Professor, MIT Sloan School of
Management; leader, AI in Financial
Markets and Decision-Making research
group
Neil Thompson
Principal Research Scientist, MIT
Sloan and MIT Computer Science &
AI Laboratory (CSAIL); leader of AI,
Quantum and Beyond research group
RESEARCHERS
Mohsen Bahrami
Research Scientist, IDE
Won-Jae Chang
Research Assistant, IDE FutureTech
Yuanhan (Canaan) Cui
Research Assistant, IDE FutureTech
Martin Fleming
Research Scientist, IDE FutureTech
Hans Gundlach
Research Assistant, CSAIL FutureTech
Brittany Harris
Data Analyst, CSAIL FutureTech
Jillian Kwong
Research Scientist, IDE
Wensu Li
Research Scientist, CSAIL FutureTech
Jayson Lynch
Research Scientist, CSAIL FutureTech
Matthias Mertens
Research Scientist, IDE FutureTech
Frank Nagle
Research Scientist, IDE
Jonathan Ruane
Research Scientist, IDE
Peter Slattery
Research Scientist, IDE FutureTech
Ana Trisovic
Research Scientist, CSAIL FutureTech
Luqi Yuan
Research Assistant, IDE FutureTech
DIGITAL FELLOWS
& RESEARCH AFFILIATES
Elizabeth Altman
Associate Professor, Manning School of
Business, University of Massachusetts,
Lowell
Matt Beane
Assistant Professor, Technology
Management Program, University of
California, Santa Barbara
Seth Benzell
Assistant Professor, Argyros School
of Business and Economics, Chapman
University
Sukwoong Choi
Assistant Professor, Massry School of
Business, University at Albany, SUNY
Avinash Collis
Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon
University
Thomas Davenport
Professor, Babson College
Paramveer Dhillon
Associate Professor, School of
Information, University of Michigan
Apostolos Filippas
Assistant Professor, Gabelli School of
Business, Fordham University
Andrey Fradkin
Associate Professor, Questrom School of
Business, Boston University
Kiran Garimella
Assistant Professor, School of
Communication and Information, Rutgers
University
Hal Gregersen
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan
Hanna Halaburda
Associate Professor of Technology,
Operations and Statistics, Stern School
of Business, New York University
Bob Hedges
Research Affiliate, MIT IDE
David Holtz
Assistant Professor, Haas School
of Business, University of California,
Berkeley
John Irons
Senior VP and Head of Research, Siegel
Family Endowment
Eaman Jahani
Assistant Professor, Robert H. Smith
School of Business, University of
Maryland
Harang Ju
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins
University
Hyo Kang
Associate Professor, SNU Business
School, Seoul National University
Aaron Kaye
Assistant Professor, Questrom School of
Business, Boston University
Paul Kedrosky
Managing Partner, SK Ventures
Elif Kiesow
Executive Director, Ethicqual
Madhav Kumar
Assistant Professor, Harvard Business
School
Jingnan Liu
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
Tod Loofbourrow
CEO, ViralGains
Wenjing (Rebecca) Lyu
Assistant Professor, Zhejiang University
Alex Moehring
Assistant Professor, Mitch Daniels School
of Business, Purdue University
Zanele Munyikwa
Economist, Revelio Labs
Geoffrey Parker
Professor, Dartmouth College
Anna Pastwa
Assistant Professor, University of Warsaw
Georgios Petropoulos
Assistant Professor, USC Marshall
Amin Rahimian
Assistant Professor, Swanson School of
Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
Maria Ressa
CEO and Co-Founder, Rappler
Daniel Rock
Assistant Professor, Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania
Michael Schrage
Lecturer, MIT Sloan
Sebastian Steffen
Assistant Professor, Boston College
Marshall Van Alstyne
Professor, Questrom School of Business,
Boston University
John Van Reenen
Professor, London School of Economics
Ehsen Valavi
Research Affiliate, MIT IDE
Emma Wiles
Assistant Professor, Questrom School of
Business, Boston University
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Visiting Lecturer, MIT Sloan
Georgios Zervas
Associate Professor of Marketing,
Questrom School of Business, Boston
University
POSTDOCS & DOCTORAL
CANDIDATES
Michael Caosun
Ph.D. Candidate
Joseph Emmens
Postdoctoral Associate
Zezhen (Dawn) He
Postdoctoral Associate
Haiwen Li
Ph.D. Candidate
Omeed Maghzian
Postdoctoral Associate
Benjamin Manning
Ph.D. Candidate
Chengfeng Mao
Ph.D. Candidate
Raphael Raux
Postdoctoral Associate
Anand Shah
Ph.D. Candidate
Peyman Shahidi
Ph.D. Candidate
Kazimier Smith
Postdoctoral Associate
Hong-Yi Tu Ye
Ph.D. Candidate
Michelle Vaccaro
Ph.D. Candidate
Yang Yu
Postdoctoral Associate
Rui Zuo
Postdoctoral Associate
VISITING SCIENTISTS
Lucy Hampton
Research Assistant, Bennett Institute for
Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Nadiia Vasylieva
Fulbright Scholar, Director of Digital
Transformation Institute
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Wayfair
16
STAFF
Joanne Batziotegos
Financial Coordinator
Tammy Buzzell
Associate Director, Finance Operations
Beth LaMontagne
Associate Director, Editorial Content
Aileen Menounos
Assistant Director, Events
Erin Palumbo
Director of Development
Carrie Reynolds
Associate Director, Marketing &
Communications
Albert Scerbo
Associate Director
David Verrill
Executive Director
CONSULTING PARTNERS
Samuel Brown
Research Project Coordinator
Paula Klein
Editorial Consultant
Peter Krass
Editorial Consultant
Santiago Navarro
Events & Program Assistant
David Weber
Fundraising Consultant
Jennifer Zaino
Editorial Consultant
SUPPORTERS
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
Carl Bass
Former President and CEO, Autodesk
Marc Benioff
Chair, CEO and Co-Founder, Salesforce
Mary Callahan Erdoes
CEO, Asset and Wealth Management,
JPMorganChase
Reid Hoffman
Co-Founder, LinkedIn
James Manyika
Senior VP, Google-Alphabet
Marissa Mayer
Co-Founder, Lumi Labs
Eric Schmidt
Former CEO and Chairman, Google
Michael Spence
Professor, NYU Stern, and Nobel laureate
FOUNDATIONS
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
Sloan Foundation
TDF Foundation
Coefficient Giving
CORPORATIONS
Accenture (Founding Member)
Autodesk
Booking.com
Coca-Cola
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Dell Technologies
The Gordian Group
Gordon Brothers
Intelmatix
MassMutual
Microsoft
Nasdaq
Netflix
Roper Technologies
SAP
Starr Insurance

CLOSING THOUGHTS FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
EXCELLENCE & EXPANSION
IN A NEW ERA
MIT Sloan’s new dean, Rick Locke, recently asked
the IDE to perform a 360-degree self-assessment.
After an exhaustive look, we confirmed that the IDE
is indeed fulfilling its mission of “Shaping a Brighter
Digital Future.”
Our key performance indicators (KPIs) are:
1. Conduct research with rigor and relevance
2. Grow scholarship and outreach
3. Increase faculty engagement
4. Provide value to our stakeholders
5. Support MIT Sloan, MIT and society
Here are a few highlights of the ways in which we
are working to achieve these goals:
• Influence Public Policy: IDE Director Sinan Aral
served as an expert witness in the FTC vs. Meta
federal antitrust trial. IDE researchers Dean
Eckles and Alessandro Aquisti both testified
before the U.S. Senate and House on algorithms
and privacy policy. Renée Richardson Gosline and
Sinan Aral each briefed the Biden White House on
Human-AI research and Covid policy.
• Scholarship and Outreach: Over the past five
years, our researchers have published more
than 1,500 papers in publications that include
Science, Nature, American Economic Review,
Journal of Labor Economics, MIS Quarterly, Sloan
Management Review, Harvard Business Review,
and Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. And their publications have been cited
more than 500,000 times.
• Faculty Engagement: As noted above, we
launched two new research groups in 2025. Eric
So’s group focuses on AI in Finance and Decision-
Making. Alessandro Acquisti’s group focuses on
Data, Markets and Privacy.
• Stakeholder Value: We’ve dramatically increased
the number of corporate members in the IDE,
and we continue to grow with very generous gifts
from our donors. We also work with more than a
dozen companies on directed research. Our live
events are limited in participation only because
of the size of our venues. Our online events have
typically garnered more than 10,000 participants.
And last year, our social media presence
surpassed 35,000 followers.
• In Service to Others: While the IDE focuses
on research, in 2025 we helped launch and
manage a second Action Learning course
with John Horton on GenAI. It’s an excellent
complement to the Analytics Lab that we’ve
managed for a decade now. Also, our faculty
lead 12 Executive Ed courses and many other
custom educational efforts.
All of these activities would be impossible without
MIT Sloan’s large support system, including the
Dean’s office, Office of External Relations, HR,
Finance and Communications. In addition, the staff
of the IDE is an exceptional group of self-motivated,
conscientious, team-oriented and just plain good
people. Our most recent addition to the team, Beth
LaMontagne, is the IDE’s first-ever Editorial Director.
She’s already having an impact.
I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in 2025 and in
the decade. In 2026 we’ll be making some additional
changes. For one, I plan to retire on June 30 with
comfort in knowing the IDE is in excellent shape,
and with amazing people continuing to build on a
platform of excellence.
DAVID VERRILL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
MIT INITIATIVE ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
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ANNUAL REPORT 2025
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