Digital Leadership Series
Upcoming Events
The AI Investment Boom and the Economy: Is It Sustainable?
Tiffany Wilding
Managing Director & Senior Economist, PIMCO
December 11, 2025, 1:00pm - 2:00pm PST
Tech giants have announced massive investments in AI, raising pressing questions about how quickly, and at what scale, these investments will generate measurable returns. Key concerns remain: Will businesses adopt AI with enough speed and breadth to realize the value anticipated by investors?
While headlines often focus on scale and power, the real story is how AI is already reshaping business strategy at the individual firm level. AI’s transformative impact goes beyond efficiency tools—it is expanding strategic possibilities and reimagining how companies create value.
A critical challenge is whether AI can deliver the kind of breakthrough innovation or economic disruption witnessed during America's outsourcing wave in the early 2000s, which fundamentally changed U.S. manufacturing and labor markets. Industry valuations and capital investment today are based on faith that AI can drive similar transformation, but the pace and trajectory remain uncertain.
In this virtual fireside chat, Tiffany Wilding and Center Director Vijay Gurbaxani will explore the tipping points for AI adoption, the implications for both businesses and the broader economy, and the factors that will determine whether companies and hyperscalers realize meaningful returns on their AI investments.
Notable Past Speakers
Artificial Insecurity: Why AI Will Worsen Social Fragility and How Business Leaders Must Act to Narrow the Gap
Professor Bhaskar Chakravorti
Dean of Global Business, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University
Achieving Shared Prosperity in the Age of AI
Simon Johnson
Nobel Prize laureate and Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race
Nicole Perlroth
Author and Reporter of Cybersecurity and Digital Espionage, The New York Times
The AI Awakening: What It Means For Productivity And Business Performance
Erik Brynjolfsson
Director, Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything
Martin Ford
Author, Futurist and Leading Expert on Artificial Intelligence & Robotics
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Past Events
Explore our video library featuring past events and speakers.
May 7, 2025
Artificial Insecurity: Why AI Will Worsen Social Fragility and How Business Leaders Must Act to Narrow the Gap
Professor Bhaskar Chakravorti - Dean of Global Business, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University
February 22, 2024
The Economic Impact of Generative AI
Dr. Michael Chui - Partner at the McKinsey Global Institute
November 1, 2023
Achieving Shared Prosperity in The Age Of AI - A Conversation with Simon Johnson
Simon Johnson - Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management
April 18, 2023
The Future of Attention: Reframing our Digital Lives to Promote Wellbeing
Gloria Mark - Chancellor’s Professor, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine
February 7, 2023
The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World
Professor Mike Smith
September 13, 2022
Confronting Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet
Nicole Perlroth - Cybersecurity Expert and Advisor at CISA
Adam Segal - Director, Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program, CFR
April 21, 2022
Free Speech, Platforms & The Fake News Problem
Marshall Van Alstyne
February 1, 2022
RULE OF THE ROBOTS: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything
Martin Ford - Author, futurist and leading expert on artificial intelligence & robotics
October 7, 2021
The AI Awakening: What It Means For Productivity And Business Performance
Erik Brynjolfsson - Director, Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki - Professor and Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI)
September 7, 2021
Advancing Diversity, Equity And Inclusion In The Tech Workplace
Ian O. Williamson - Dean, UCI Paul Merage School of Business
Rashmi Kumar - Chief Information Officer, Global IT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
July 27, 2021
Building and Managing a Distributed Workforce
Jeetu Patel - Executive Vice President & General Manager, Security & Collaboration, Cisco
February 23, 2021
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race
Nicole Perlroth - Reporter of Cybersecurity and Digital Espionage, The New York Times
January 28, 2021
Building a Data Science Organization
Sean J. Taylor - Head of Rideshare Labs, Lyft
September 24, 2020
Digital Transform in a Pandemic: What Companies are Doing and How Government Policy Should Adapt
Victoria Espinel - President and CEO, BSA | The Software Alliance
Ha McNeill - COO, BSA | The Software Alliance
August 5, 2020
The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health
Sinan Aral - Director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
David Austin - Professor of IT & Marketing, MIT Sloan School of Management
June 19, 2020
Building Resilience in Uncertain Times
Susan Doniz - CIO and SVP of IT & Data Analytics, The Boeing Company
