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AI for Business Challenge ‘26

Organization: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Subject: AI City: Amsterdam

Summary

Interested to know what you can do with AI? Let a team of master students help you out exploring how your business can benefit from AI. They investigate if and how you should apply AI tools, techniques, or strategies to reach certain business goals.

Description

During this course, master students will explore your AI business challenge. Submit challenges related to exploring AI strategies, assessing AI readiness, alternative approaches to AI implementation, etc. Find below all relevant information about this challenge.

✅ Key features of the challenge

Students per team: 5-6 students

Teams per challenge: up to 3 teams (you can ask each team to focus on a different element of the challenge)

Course: Global Organizational Change

Programme: Master Business Administration - International Management

No. of hours spent per team: 150 hours

Deliverables: to the point advisory report and a presentation.

Supervision: Teams are supervised by senior lecturers

Company time investment: Your time involvement is 8-12 hours in total (e.g., (bi-)weekly (short) meetings, interviews, final presentation, etc.).

Matching fee: €850,- (Only when matched. This flat fee is regardless the number of teams matched to your challenge)

📑 Main Deliverables and Challenge Examples

The main deliverables are a presentation and an advisory report (in the form of slides) containing recommendations for your challenge. At the start of the course you can discuss with the team what your most important focus areas are. A variety of topics related to new and social media and communication are suitable for this challenge. Some examples:

Balancing AI Strategy with Business Goals: How do managers strike the right balance between ambitious AI initiatives and the core business strategy? Deliberating on this question involves understanding how AI can complement and enhance business objectives without leading to resource diversion or focus shift from essential business operations. It's about finding synergy between AI's potential and the business's primary goals.

Ethics and Governance in AI Advancement: Where should companies draw the line between ethical considerations and the pursuit of advanced AI capabilities? This topic involves navigating the complex terrain of ethical AI use, including issues like fairness, bias avoidance, and privacy maintenance. The challenge lies in innovating responsibly, ensuring technological progression aligns with ethical standards and societal expectations.

Technology Adoption and Innovation Management: How do companies balance the adoption of new AI technologies with innovation in their current tech infrastructure? This topic explores the decision-making process between investing in emerging AI technologies and optimizing existing tools. It's about assessing the risks and benefits of early adoption of new technologies against the potential for growth and innovation with familiar systems.

AI Talent Development and Acquisition: How do companies decide between developing AI skills within their existing workforce and recruiting specialized AI talent? This discussion covers strategies for building AI capabilities, including the long-term benefits of fostering a learning culture versus the immediate advantages of onboarding external expertise.

Enhancing Customer Experience with AI and Human Elements: How do companies find the right mix of AI efficiency and human empathy in customer service? This topic delves into the balance between using AI for scalable and efficient customer service and maintaining the human touch that brings empathy and personal connection, aiming to achieve optimal customer satisfaction.

Broad vs. Narrow LLM Implementation: Should companies opt for broad, versatile Large Language Models with wide-ranging functionalities, or choose narrow, specialized LLMs tailored for specific tasks? This discussion focuses on selecting AI tools based on business needs, weighing the flexibility and general applicability of broad LLMs against the targeted efficiency of narrow LLMs.

🏢 Requirement for participating companies

Any organization with over 10 employees from any industry can submit a challenge.

Be available during the kick-off and the final presentation (see planning).

Adequate involvement during the course by being available for interim (brief) updates and to answer team questions.

💰 Costs

Master Challenge will charge a matching fee of €850,- (ex tax).

❗️You will only be charged when matched to one or more teams (in other words, it's a flat fee).

📨 How to apply

You can submit the challenge directly through the Master Challenge website. Provide a concise title and a short description of your challenge. You can use this template: https://link.masterchallenge.me/challenge-template or try the challenge generator: https://masterchallenge.me/challenge-generator

🗓 Planning

December 19: Deadline for submitting your challenge

December 20 (or sooner): Receiving message if your challenge is approved by the Course Coordinator

January 6-9: Matching phase

January 12-14: Kick-off meeting with your team (your team will contact you to set up the meeting)

January 30: Final presentations

Questions? Want to discuss your challenge before submitting one? Feel free to schedule a call 👉 here.

Information for students

We're happy to have you on board 👋

Most likely you have been added to a team on this platform.

In case you need to add more people to your team, or edit the team information, click here, click the three dots on the right and click Edit.

This will happen next 👇

Once you are assigned to a team, get together (offline or online) with your team asap, to discuss which challenges you want to work on and why, and submit this selection. Deadline is January 7, by 12:00pm.

Subsequently, the participating organizations will rank the teams that want to work on their challenge on January 7 by 11:59pm.

Finally, our platform will generate and share the team-challenge matches on January 8.

Once you're matched to a challenge, schedule a kick-off meeting with the company representative on January 8-10. (☝️Use this template)

Share your workplan (see consulting skills course below) with the company representative by January 16.

Consulting Skills Course

To boost your consulting skills we offer you the Master Challenge Online Consulting Skills Course for free, click 👉 here. (To get the course for free use this coupon code 👉 AIBJAN2025)

In case you have any questions about the use of the platform, contact us using the chat feature (bottom right).

Good luck!

Key details

Open on Master Challenge