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At the Universo TOTVS 2026 event in São Paulo, senior lecturer George Westerman gave an interview to CNN Cast to discuss how artificial intelligence is affecting the corporate world and the job market. "AI doesn't produce value in companies on its own," he said. According to him, what AI does is enable businesses to operate differently — and that's the truly critical part of the transformation.

Distinguished senior lecturer Robert Pozen and co-author wrote: "The SEC is moving in the wrong direction by allowing mutual funds to charge one-sided performance fees and encouraging Wall Street to sell more private assets to unsophisticated buyers. Instead, the SEC should bolster investor protections by increasing the criteria for accredited investors to reflect inflation, and by ensuring all retail investors fully understand the risks in buying funds holding illiquid securities of private companies."

Professor Scott Stern explained that research accumulated over the past 20 years has shown that industrial clusters influence business activity, startups, innovation, and regional economic performance. However, he argued that the benefits of geographical proximity lead to actual growth not merely by gathering companies in one place, but only when people move within that space, technology and infrastructure are shared, and they become mutual customers and suppliers.

"I would encourage people to use AI to explain and define," said associate professor Taha Choukhmane. "If you're interested in knowing what the stock market is, what the difference between a mutual fund and an index fund is. Using AI to explain these concepts can be very useful because it can empower people to get the most out of these methods." Choukhmane also recommends asking AI to provide references to trusted sources to verify the information provided.

According to lecturer Lars Frølund, Yucatán faces the challenge of moving from recognizing its strengths to turning them into concrete opportunities for innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. The question, from his perspective, is not only what technology Yucatán can adopt in the face of the transformation driven by artificial intelligence, but also what advantage the state has and how it can turn it into an innovation platform capable of generating growth and opportunities.

Professor Emilio J. Castilla emphasized that employee experience should not be measured solely by how people feel, but also by the real opportunities they have to join, learn, contribute, receive recognition, and advance. "When employees have real opportunities to contribute, learn, and exercise their judgment, organizations create better conditions for delivering higher-value experiences to their customers," he said.

Research by professor Sinan Aral and co-author suggested that personalizing AI to fit the individual may be one of the most consequential design decisions a business can make. The paper is the first of its kind to test systematically how AI personalities interact with human personalities in a controlled experimental setting.

Professor Retsef Levi said: "I think that the first question is, what can we do to actually prevent these problems at the source?" Levi said that with new remote surveillance and blockchain technologies, the agricultural system could be better monitored, and therefore problems could be more quickly caught at the source. "Technology can help. Data can help. Processes can help. But at the end of the day, we need to have a strong fundamental culture of food safety," he said.

Visiting professor Gilbert Metcalf said: "On the supply side, it's not going to lead to any more diesel coming online, all it does is change some of the diesel that's out there to be usable by anyone. On the demand side, if we shift some of that diesel into road use, what does that mean? It means that the diesel is going to be more expensive for farmers and other off-road use, like construction."

Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman wrote: "Companies are increasingly stripping workers of employee status, along with the benefits and protections that a job has traditionally offered. And in doing so, they're creating a disposable workforce. Without sustained pressure, disposability will become the default way America works, and the costs will keep piling up. We need to lift our eyes from an obsession with AI, recognize this pattern – and act."