Harvard Business School is testing a new kind of teaching assistant: AI avatars that look and sound like real instructors. The school's eight-week HBS Foundry bootcamp, which costs $699, uses the digital doubles to give entrepreneurs feedback during practice pitches and board meetings. The avatars were created by the startup HeyGen, and live sessions with human instructors still happen every week.
A Reporter Puts the Avatar to the Test
New York Times reporter Sarah Kessler tried the experience firsthand. She pitched an AI-generated copy of Jeff Bussgang, co-founder of venture capital firm Flybridge Capital. Kessler said the virtual Bussgang offered a noticeably frozen smile during the pitch. The digital version of Bussgang was polite, but the expression stayed fixed, which she found unsettling.
Bussgang himself has mixed feelings about his digital twin. He called his own copy "creepy." But he also acknowledged that the avatars are landing well with the people who matter most. "My students love it," he said.
From Chatbot to Guided Experience
The AI component did not start as a video avatar. Katharina Rings, the project director who designed the AI part of the bootcamp, initially envisioned it as a chatbot. That plan changed after HBS released a trial version of the program. Students wanted a more guided experience after the trial, so the team shifted toward the avatar-based approach.
Foundry participants told Kessler they like the avatars. That positive reaction stands in contrast to broader sentiment on some college campuses, where students have expressed negative feelings toward AI. The bootcamp appears to be an exception, at least among the entrepreneurs enrolled.
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Expanding Reach Through AI
Harvard Business School is using the avatars as part of a broader push to expand its reach. The AI doubles allow the school to offer individual feedback without requiring an instructor to be present for every practice session. That makes the program more scalable, while the weekly live sessions keep a human element in place.
Bussgang's reaction captures the tension. He finds his own avatar a little "creepy," yet he sees the value in the tool. The frozen smile that Kessler noticed may be a quirk of the technology, but it did not stop participants from embracing the format.
What Comes Next
The bootcamp is still early in its rollout. The trial version helped shape the current design, and the school is likely to keep refining the experience based on feedback. The article was published on August 22, 2026, and it is part of TechCrunch AI's ongoing coverage of artificial intelligence in education and business.
The story also touches on broader AI news. Inherent, a startup founded by DeepMind alumni, claims its AI "teammate" outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI. OpenAI has said California should strengthen its AI safety bill. And the Department of Justice is investigating a16z. These developments show how quickly the AI landscape is shifting.