Harvard Business School Is Using AI Avatars to Coach Its $699 Startup Bootcamp Students

Key points

• Harvard Business School's Foundry bootcamp, priced at $699 for eight weeks, uses AI avatars built by startup HeyGen to give feedback to student entrepreneurs.
• The avatars simulate real instructors and investors, including Flybridge Capital co-founder Jeff Bussgang.
• Students in the programme said they prefer the avatars over a basic chatbot experience.
• Bussgang called his digital double "a little creepy" but said his students love it.

Harvard Business School wants to reach more aspiring entrepreneurs. Its answer, at least partly, is to clone its instructors.

The school's Foundry programme is an eight-week online bootcamp for people starting a business, costing $699. Live sessions with a human instructor run every week. But when students practise their investor pitches or run mock board meetings, the feedback comes from an AI avatar, a computer-generated video likeness that looks and speaks like a real person. Those avatars were built by HeyGen, a startup specialising in realistic digital doubles.

On 22 July we reported on Synthesia doing something similar for workplace coaching, so the model isn't new. What's new is a named business school staking its brand on it.

What does an AI avatar actually do here?

The avatar stands in for a real instructor or investor during practice runs, responding to a student's pitch with feedback. It's closer to a video call with a virtual person than a text chatbot.

New York Times reporter Sarah Kessler tried the experience herself, pitching a fictional "Uber for bananas" concept to an avatar built to resemble Jeff Bussgang, co-founder of Flybridge Capital. The real Bussgang was equally unimpressed. His digital double, Kessler noted, held a noticeably frozen smile throughout.

Project director Katharina Rings said the original plan was something simpler, closer to a standard text chatbot. After an early trial, students pushed back: they wanted more guidance and a more lifelike interaction, so the programme shifted to the full avatar format.

Should students or instructors be worried?

Neither group has raised serious alarms so far. Foundry students told Kessler they actually like the avatars, finding them useful for low-stakes practice before facing a real investor.

Bussgang is candid about the oddness. "Creepy" was his word. He added: "My students love it."

The practical reality for anyone considering the programme is this: you're not trading away human contact. Live weekly sessions stay human. Avatars handle the repetitive practice feedback that would otherwise fall to an overworked instructor or not happen at all. Whether that trade-off holds as programmes scale is worth watching: our 7 August story found that AI tutors often struggle to know when to back off, a limitation no frozen smile will fix.

Common questions

Is the AI avatar the same as the real instructor?

No. The avatar handles practice feedback only. Live teaching is still run by human instructors each week.

Can anyone sign up for the Foundry bootcamp?

The programme is an eight-week online course open to entrepreneurs and costs $699. It runs through Harvard Business School but is not a degree programme.