AI in Business Conference
Human-in-the-Loop AI: Enabling Responsible and Impactful Human-AI Collaboration
Columbus, OH | October 2-3, 2025
As businesses increasingly adopt artificial intelligence, the need for effective human-AI collaboration becomes essential. The Fisher College of Business announces its inaugural AI in Business Conference examining Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) AI systems featuring human oversight, ethical safeguards, and accountability. HITL AI goes beyond constraining algorithms; it emphasizes augmenting human capabilities and decision-making across different business domains. We aim to spark interdisciplinary dialogue on how these systems drive business value and shape the future of work.
Conference highlights
- Sessions featuring cutting-edge academic research
- Academic keynotes
- Ample opportunities for networking and collaboration
- Best paper presentation competition
Featured speakers
Anindya Ghose
New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Anindya Ghose is the Heinz Riehl Chair Professor of Technology and Marketing at at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he holds a joint appointment in the Marketing and Technology, Operations, and Statistics departments. He is also the Director of the Masters of Business Analytics Program and a Leonard Stern Faculty Scholar with an MBA scholarship (the Ghose Scholarship) named after him.
He is the author of TAP: Unlocking The Mobile Economy, a double winner at the 2018 Axiom Business Book Awards, and THRIVE: Maximizing Well-Being in the Age of AI . His rapid promotion from assistant to full professor in 8.5 years is considered one of the fastest in global business school history.
Professor Ghose’s Ph.D. students have gone on to academic and industry leadership roles worldwide. He has published over 125 papers, delivered more than 325 talks globally, and received 29 best paper awards. His research spans digital platforms, mobile commerce, AI, data privacy, and digital marketing.
He is the youngest recipient of the INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow Award and has received the AIS Fellow Award, the INFORMS ISS President's Service Award, and the INFORMS ISS President's Service Award. He was named among the Top 40 Professors Under 40 Worldwide by Poets & Quants, a Thinkers50 nominee for Digital Thinking, and is in the top 1% of global researchers by Web of Science.
He has consulted for and collaborated with firms including Alibaba, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Verizon. He serves on the board of Delhivery and advises startups and VC firms across the U.S., India, and Asia.
He has served as an expert witness in high-profile litigation involving the DOJ, FTC, Meta, Google, and Amazon. He is affiliated as a Scientific Expert with Compass Lexecon.
Outside academia, he is an avid high-altitude mountaineer, having climbed peaks across five continents.
David Simchi-Levi
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Simchi-Levi holds the MIT William Barton Rogers Professorship (named after the founder & first president of MIT), is a Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT and serves as the head of the MIT Data Science Lab. He is considered one of the premier thought leaders in supply chain management and business analytics.
His Ph.D. students have accepted faculty positions in leading academic institutes including U. of California Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon U., Columbia U., Cornell U., Duke U., Georgia Tech, Harvard U., U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U. of Michigan, Purdue U. and Virginia Tech.
Professor Simchi-Levi is the former Editor-in-Chief of Management Science (2018-2023), one of the two flagship journals of INFORMS. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for Operations Research (2006-2012), the other flagship journal of INFORMS and for Naval Research Logistics (2003-2005).
In 2023, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious INFORMS Impact Prize for playing a leading role in developing and disseminating a new highly impactful paradigm for the identification and mitigation of risks in global supply chains.
He is an INFORMS Fellow and MSOM Distinguished Fellow and the recipient of the 2020 INFORMS Koopman Award given to an outstanding publication in military operations research; Ford Motor Company 2015 Engineering Excellence Award; 2014 INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice; 2014 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Practice Award; and 2009 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize.
He was the founder of LogicTools which provided software solutions and professional services for supply chain optimization. LogicTools became part of IBM in 2009. In 2012 he co-founded OPS Rules, an operations analytics consulting company. The company became part of Accenture in 2016. In 2014, he co-founded Opalytics, a cloud analytics platform company focusing on operations and supply chain decisions. The company became part of the Accenture Applied Intelligence in 2018.
Mary Strain
Amazon Web Services
Mary Strain leads strategy for artificial intelligence and machine learning in the US public sector at AWS. Mary began her career as a middle school teacher in the Bronx, NY. Since that time, she has held leadership roles in public sector technology organizations as a product lead, and vice president of business development. Mary has advised higher education, technology companies, state and local government on innovative policies and practices leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to advance access and efficiencies. As an advisor to The Education Design Studio at The University of Pennsylvania, The State of NJ AI Task Force and the California State University AI Workforce Acceleration Board. Mary has been on the leading edge of bringing innovative solutions to serve the public interest for two decades. Mary holds a BA from Fordham University and an MPA from The City University of New York
Attending the conference
The AI in Business Conference will take place October 2-3, 2025 in Pfahl Hall at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.
Thursday, October 2, 2025
- Opening Remarks – Provost, The Ohio State University
- Academic Keynote
- Research Sessions
- Happy Hour & Networking Reception
*Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided
Friday, October 3, 2025
- Registration & Breakfast
- AI in Education Session
- Research Sessions
- Roundtable discussion on emerging AI topics
- Industry panel sessions
- Teaching workshops
*Breakfast and lunch are provided
Recommended accommodations
We are pleased to offer a special room block for conference attendees at The Blackwell Inn, conveniently located on Ohio State's campus:
The Blackwell Inn and Pfahl Conference Center
2110 Tuttle Park Place
Columbus, OH 43210A preferred group rate has been arranged for conference attendees. Early reservations are encouraged, as availability is limited. Contact Erika Santolalla if you need any additional information or help with booking.
Other hotels around the campus area
Parking
Conference attendees may park in the Lane Avenue Garage. For parking validation, bring your garage entrance ticket to the conference registration table.
Lane Avenue Garage
2105 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Call for submissions
We invite scholars from all business management disciplines conducting research in the broad domain of effective human-AI collaboration to submit an abstract (maximum 500 words, excluding references, tables, and figures) in PDF format. The abstract should summarize the research project and articulate its intended contribution to the conference.
Submission deadline: July 31, 2025
Decisions are made on a rolling basis through August 15, 2025, with early acceptances issued as submissions are reviewed.
Researchers in all business fields are invited to submit. We welcome abstract submissions from all areas of business, including Accounting, Information Systems, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, Logistics, Management, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior, and Human Resources. Submissions may be interdisciplinary or rooted within a single business discipline. Examples include (but are not limited to):
- Human-AI collaboration in business processes
- Explainable AI, accountability, and governance
- AI ethics, bias mitigation, and fairness in business
- Mitigating Bias and Ensuring Fairness in AI Algorithm Design
- Generative AI for creativity, ideation, and marketing
- AI in operations, supply chain, and logistics
- Large language models and their business applications
- Psychological and behavioral responses to AI in the workplace
- Organizational change and the future of work in the AI era
- AI regulation, privacy, and security
- AI tools for strategic decision-making and innovation
- Individual and group differences in AI usage patterns
We welcome abstracts that propose contributions in any of the following forms:
Empirical, analytical, or theoretical research projects
Investigations that deepen our understanding of Human-in-the-Loop AI systems and human-AI collaboration across business functions.
Roundtable discussions
Facilitated discussions on emerging questions or challenges related to human-AI collaboration, designed to foster connection and idea exchange among scholars and practitioners.
Pedagogical approaches or teaching innovations
Novel teaching methods, curriculum designs, or classroom applications that explore AI’s role in business education.
All abstracts will undergo review by a multidisciplinary planning committee. Our goal is to create an engaging, community-based conference experience that highlights rigorous and diverse scholarship while also fostering collaboration, dialogue, and innovation across disciplines and sectors.
Best paper awards
- Best Student Paper Presentation Award ($1,000)
- Best Junior Faculty Paper Presentation Award ($1,000)
To qualify, the first author and presenter must be a PhD student, postdoctoral fellow, or junior faculty at the time of submission.
We look forward to seeing you at the inaugural AI in Business Conference at The Ohio State University!