Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors
- ID
- 16946
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 23 Aug 2026, 5:46 AM
- Fetched
- 23 Aug 2026, 5:59 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/22/harvards-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 23 Aug 2026, 6:00 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- ai_agent_userssaas_foundersai_ml_learners
What happened
Harvard Business School's $699, eight-week HBS Foundry startup bootcamp uses AI avatars built by HeyGen to give entrepreneurs feedback during practice pitches and board meetings, supplementing weekly live instructor sessions. Project director Katharina Rings said students rejected an earlier chatbot-style trial in favor of a more guided avatar experience, and instructor Jeff Bussgang acknowledged his digital copy was 'creepy' but said students loved it.
Why it matters
If you are building AI coaching, training, or feedback products, the key detail is that users rejected a chatbot interface and preferred guided AI avatars of real people — a concrete UX signal that persona-based interaction outperforms open-ended chat for structured practice scenarios. For founders considering the Malaysian/ASEAN market for AI-powered training or accelerator programs, this validates a $699 price point for AI-augmented bootcamps and shows HeyGen as a viable avatar platform to evaluate.
Discussion angle
The product pivot from chatbot to guided avatar is the real lesson here — discuss why structured persona-based feedback beats open-ended chat for practice scenarios, and whether this pattern applies to AI-powered onboarding, sales training, or compliance coaching products the audience might build.