AI in Our Lives: The Behavioral Science of Autonomous Technology…………………………

MKTG7790001 // MKTG7790003 // MKTG7790005: Syllabus

Spring 2026

INSTRUCTOR
Stefano Puntoni
Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing
Co-Director, Wharton Human-AI Research
puntoni@[Link]
[Link]

TEACHING ASSISTANTS
The TAs (a team of PhD students, post-docs and MBAs) can be reached at
[Link]@[Link]

OFFICE HOURS
Tuesdays during Q3: 12:00 – 13:00, open door.
Office: JMHH 760

COURSE OUTLINE

“AI in Our Lives” takes a behavioral science perspective on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). It
reviews new behavioral insights to help companies thrive in the dawning age of intelligent
machines. This is a non-technical course. No coding or data science skills are required. The course
bridges two perspectives. On one side, we’ll acknowledge the tremendous value that AI can
provide to firms and individuals. In many ways, automation defines progress. On the other side,
we’ll examine emerging risks in an AI-driven economy. The ultimate goal of the course is to help
ensure that the amazing technologies currently being developed bring about positive change. The
course will strive to achieve that by tackling the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:
SDG9 (Innovation), SDG8 (Economic growth), SDG3 (Health and wellbeing), SDG10 (Reduced
inequality), and SDG12 (Responsible consumption and production). The course complements the
activities of Wharton Human-AI Research ([Link] a research initiative
exploring the boundary between human psychology and AI.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND OBJECTIVES

The course focuses on Generative AI but we will also discuss other applications of prediction
technology. After an introduction to the current state and diffusion of AI, we will review the cognitive
foundations of intelligence to sketch a new division of labor between human experts and AI. We will
then discuss the psychology of AI, focusing on both consumers (e.g., customer experience,
conversational commerce, synthetic data) and workers (e.g., psychological threats, coping
strategies, and impact on skills). The final part of the course will focus on topics of great societal
importance: innovation, jobs, and ethics. We end by looking at the future of both carbon- and
silicon-based intelligence to speculate on what might be coming next.

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In addition to its many substantive insights, the course offers moments of reflection to help you
understand how technology is changing our lives, and how each of us can help effect positive
change in the world. Moreover, every Monday we will start with an analysis of the previous week’s
news in AI.

The main theoretical lens will be offered by psychology, but we will also examine ideas from
economics, management, history, statistics, computer science, art, sociology, and philosophy.
While also relevant to other disciplines (e.g., entrepreneurship, operations, IT, innovation, or
general management), the main application contexts will be focused on marketing. The table below
lists the course’s learning areas and objectives:

Learning areas Objectives

I. Content- related O1: Students will understand the value-creating potential of AI

O2: Students will understand the psychological processes that govern

individuals’ reactions to automation
II. Skills-related O3: Students will acquire effective tools for combining human and machine
intelligence in decision making
O4: Students will learn how to design positive consumer AI experiences

III. Attitude-related O5: Students will learn to reflect on the way AI is changing their own lives,
as well as business practice

WHAT THIS COURSE IS NOT

The focus of this course is the psychology of AI. The goal is to help you understand how consumers
and workers think, feel, and behave in relation to AI. To help set your expectations, it is useful to
highlight what this course is not:

This is not a course on AI methods. We will be discussing the mechanics of AI only to the extent
that is needed to understand how AI produces outputs with specific properties. This is not a
technical course.

This is not a course on AI strategy. We will be discussing incentives, resources, objectives and
organization of market actors when that helps us understand the impact AI is having on individuals
and how AI is being developed the way it is. This is not a management strategy course.

This is not a course on AI tools. We will be discussing current market offerings when that’s
necessary, and we’ll use some tools in the assignments, but the focus is not on demoing AI
applications. This is an academic course, not a hands-on/practice-the-tools course.

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CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS

• Course enrollment is not allowed after January 25

• Please be mindful of your device use in class. For the sake of your learning and to avoid
distracting those around you, I strongly recommend trying to minimize tech use in class
• Name tents displayed in every class
• Class starts and ends on time. Late arrival will be penalized in class participation grading
• Sit according to the seating chart

When I created this course, it was the first business school course on the behavioral science of AI
offered anywhere, and the field is still in flux. The behavioral science of AI is a nascent
multidisciplinary field. New findings are continuously being generated in academic and private
sector labs around the world. It is important to approach the topic with intellectual humility. I will
share what I know but I will not pretend to have all the answers. To a larger extent than usual, we
will be learning together. I expect you to be engaged, curious, probing, and ready to explore wild
ideas, even uncomfortable ones.

READINGS

The course requires a moderate amount of reading (see reference list in session outline below).
These are not substitutes for the class content. This means that you cannot get the content of the
class from the readings and that you cannot just attend a class to know the content of the readings.
The purpose of the readings is to (1) complement the content discussed in class; (2) provide
background to the sessions; and (3) expose you to additional relevant ideas that it is not possible to
cover in class due to time limitations.

I will post on Canvas all the slides used in the sessions. The slides will be posted after each session.
Additional relevant readings may also be posted after the sessions.

GENERATIVE AI

Generative AI tools are allowed in this course without restriction, unless specified. However, keep in
mind the following:
• Generative AI models do not always produce output that is accurate and/or appropriate.
You will be responsible for any inaccurate or biased content you submit.
• If you use generative AI, its contribution must be acknowledged in the assignment.
• The university's policy on plagiarism still applies to any uncited or improperly cited use of
work by other human beings, or submission of work by other human beings as your own.

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SUMMARY OF ASSESSMENT

Assessment will entail a mix of individual (70%) and group (30%) assignments. The course will
feature the following grade components:

• A1 In-class participation (20%)

• A2 Individual assignment: Prompt engineering and consumer AI experiences (30%)
• A3 Individual assignment: Chatbot design (20%)
• A4: Group assignment: Industry audit report (30%)

Detailed information about each assignment is included at the end of this syllabus.

Note the following:

• Each assignment will be graded on a scale from 0 to 10. The overall course score will be
computed using the weights above. The final grade will be computed from the overall score
by applying customary cut-off points.
• For the group assignments, you will work in groups of 5 or 6. You will be free to form the
groups. The deadline to form the groups is January 31. If you struggle to find teammates,
reach out to the TAs who will help you find a team. To ensure fairness, all students will be
asked to grade the relative contribution of their team members at the end of the course.

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SUMMARY OF SESSIONS

All classes: 10:15-11:45 // 12:00-1:30 // 1:45 – 3:15 // Room: JMHH G60

Date Topic Readings Assignments

Wed Introduction This course syllabus 1) Watch

1/21 Introduction
• The course: learning OpenAI (2025), “Open AI Model to AI videos
and assessment Spec,” [Link] on Canvas
• Using LLMs [Link]/[Link]
• Why a behavioral [Read only up to “Structure of the 2) Send me a
science course on AI? document”. But I advise skimming the LinkedIn
rest—it’s fascinating] connect
invite (if
you’re on the
platform)

Mon Adoption Benartzi, Puntoni (2025), “Decoding

1/26 the AI Bubble: Tulips, Dot-Coms, or
• Patterns of corporate Something Else?,”
adoption and insights [Link]
from the Wharton GenAI article/decoding-the-ai-bubble-tulips-
adoption report dot-coms-or-something-else/

OpenAI (2025), “The State of

Enterprise AI,”
[Link]
96bf-4dd1-9df2-228f7f377a29/the-
state-of-enterprise-ai_2025-[Link]

Wed Understanding intelligence Amodei (2024), “Machines of Loving Briefing for

1/28 Grace,” A3
• A framework for [Link]
understanding loving-grace January 31 is
intelligence the deadline
• Causal inference vs. Marcus (2024), “This one important to form the
pattern detection fact about current AI explains almost groups for A4
everything,”,
[Link]
s-one-important-fact-about-current

Jones (2025), “How Good Old-

fashioned AI Could Spark the Field's
Next Revolution,” Nature. See Canvas.

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Mon AI Integration / Agents Shahidi et al. (2025), “The Coasean
2/2 Singularity? Demand, Supply, and
• A new division of labor Market Design with AI Agents”,
• Integration archetypes [Link]
• When your customer is chapters/economics-transformative-
a bot ai/coasean-singularity-demand-supply-
and-market-design-ai-agents
Guests:
Jaclyn Lavy, Associate Director,
Private Sales, Phillips
([Link]/in/jaclyn-lavy-
b7710b4b)

Wed Consumers, part 1 Puntoni et al. (2021), “Consumers and Briefing for
2/4 Artificial Intelligence: An Experiential A2
• Customer experience Perspective,” Journal of Marketing.
• Mental health See Canvas.

De Freitas (2024), “Can AI

Companions Help Cure the Loneliness
Epidemic?” Wall Street Journal,
September 17. See Canvas.

Mon Consumer, part 2 Korst, Puntoni, Toubia (2025), “How

2/9 Generative AI Is Transforming
• Using LLMs for market Marketing Research,” Harvard
insights Business Review. See Canvas.
• Synthetic personas
• Digital twins

Guests:
Jon Lombardo, Brian Watroba
& Peter Weinberg, Co-founders,
Evidenza
([Link]/in/jonlombardo
[Link]/in/weinbergpeter
[Link]/in/brianwatroba)

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Wed Workers, part 1 Hermann, Puntoni, Morewedge February 15
2/11 (2026), “Why Gen AI Feels So is the
• Psychological threats Threatening to Workers And What deadline for
• Coping strategies Leaders Can Do To Help”, Harvard A2
Business Review. See Canvas.
Guest:
Jeremy Korst, Founder, Williams, Puntoni (2023), “How AI
Mindspan Labs, Partner, GBK Affects Our Sense of Self,” Harvard
Collective Business Review. See Canvas.
([Link]/in/jkorst)

Mon Workers, part 2 Hofman, Goldstein, Rothschild (2023),

2/16 “A Sports Analogy for Understanding
• Skills Different Ways to Use AI,” Harvard
• Deskilling Business Review. See Canvas

Guest:
Bryant McCombs, Account
Director, OpenAI
([Link]/in/bryantjm)

Wed Innovation De Freitas, Nave, Puntoni (2025), February 22

2/18 “When Used Correctly, LLMs Can is the
• Understanding creativity Unlock More Creative Ideas”, Harvard deadline for
• Ideation with LLMs Business Review. See Canvas. A3
• Asking new questions

Guest:
Raheel Khaan, SVP & Head of
AI, Estée Lauder Companies
([Link]/in/raheel-khan-
1193814)

Mon Jobs Agrawal, Gans, Goldfarb (2023), “Do

2/23 We Want Less Automation?”, Science.
• Productivity See Canvas
• Output quality
• Inequality
• What problems can AI
help us solve?

Guest:
Kimberly Shenk, CEO, Novi
([Link]/in/kimberlyshenk)

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Wed Ethics Abernethy et al. (2024), “Bring Human March 1 is
2/25 Value to AI”, Harvard Business deadline for
• Algorithm aversion Review. See Canvas. A4
• Bias
• Ethical issues from
interaction between
humans & machines

Mon Finale No assigned readings for this session.

3/2 Instead, here are some book
• The glass half full recommendations:
• The glass half empty
• Today in a historical Frey (2025), How Progress Ends
perspective Harari (2025), Nexus
Suleyman (2025), The Coming Wave

And one short story by Asimov (1959),

The Last Question,
[Link]
[Link]

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ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT

A1: Class participation (20%)

You are expected to contribute to an informed exchange about the topic of the class. Your
participation will be judged based on four criteria (in decreasing order of importance): (a) your
ability to facilitate a constructive and insightful discussion during the semester, (b) the quality of
your comments, (c) regular contributions to the conversation, (d) your attentiveness in class.
Obviously, to perform on any of these dimensions it is necessary to attend the sessions (but
engagement on Canvas is also valued).

A2: Prompt engineering and consumer AI experiences, Individual assignment (30%)

Puntoni et al. (2021) propose four consumer AI experiences: data capture, classification,
delegation, and social. In this individual report, you will consider an AI-driven consumer solution of
your choice for each of these experiences. Then you will analyze how to best design the consumer
experience to maximize benefits and minimize downsides for users. More information about this
assignment will be provided on February 4.

After a cover page with your name and student id, you should analyze one case for each of the four
AI experiences listed above. You are allowed to explore different products/services for each
experience.

You will write the essays using ChatGPT. Your task will be to prompt the LLM and refine the output
via additional prompts. The first part is the main body of the assignment: the four short essays, one
for each of the consumer AI experiences (750 words max per experience).

Write one mini-essay at a time (one per experience). That will give you the chance to try different
prompting strategies. When working on a mini-essay, you should note down your learnings and
then apply/test/refine those in the next mini-essay. Note that, to be able to assess the quality of the
essays, you will need to carefully read Puntoni et al. (2021) prior to prompting.

If you want to make any change to the LLM-generated text, do that at the end, and highlight the
parts that you changed. While doing that, reflect on what you decided to change and why.

In the second section of the assignment (2000 words max), you will explain the prompting
strategies that you tried, what you thought the LLM did well and less well, what you decided to
change in the LLM output (if anything), and generally how you leveraged generative AI to complete
the assignment. Half of the assignment grade will be based on the insights you gained on effectively
integrating generative AI into your writing. Using GenAI is not allowed for this part of the
assignment.

The grading will be split into two: one grade for the essays and one for the self-reflection.

For the essays, the criteria will focus on: (a) insightfulness of the analysis (e.g., reliance on logical
arguments, conceptual coherence, novelty, and usefulness of the insights—50%), (b)
interestingness (novelty and importance) of the chosen examples (30%), and (c) clarity and
structure (20%).

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For the self-reflection part, the criteria will focus on: (a) insights into ways of working with AI
(including metacognitive understanding of the contribution of human and machine intelligence—
50%), (b) insights into the effectiveness of specific prompts and prompting strategies (30%), and
(c) clarity and structure (20%).

Primary learning objectives: O1, O2, O3, O4

Deadline: Sunday February 15 at midnight

A3: Individual assignment: Chatbot design (20%)

In this assignment, you will be tasked with creating a chatbot using the custom GPT function in
ChatGPT. This will also serve as the deliverable. The custom GPT will solve a problem of your
choosing in a manner of your choosing. You will be briefed on this assignment on January 28.

This grade component will be peer graded. Each student will be randomly assigned to grade
chatbots made by other students. Your grading criteria will focus on the perceived usefulness of the
bot and your assessment of the creativity of the idea. The grade for this component will be a
function of the peer assessments. More information about the submission and grading procedure
will be provided during the course.

Primary learning objectives: O1, O2, O3, O5

Deadline: Sunday, February 22 at midnight

A4: Industry Audit, Group assignment (Report: 30%)

In this assignment, you will work in teams of 5 or 6 to identify new business opportunities by
leveraging the capabilities of AI discussed in the course. You will write the report about one industry
of your choice. How can AI be used to improve processes and products in this industry?

The deliverable is a pdf document (max. 2.500 words). The cover page should list the group
number and the team members’ names and student ids. You are free to organize the rest of the
document the way you prefer.

Make sure to use evidence and literature as much as possible to support your claims. That may
include desk research (e.g., academic literature, industry reports) and primary research (e.g.,
interviews with managers, surveys of consumers). You are free to add as many appendices and
references as you like. These are not included in the word count.

The grading criteria will focus on, in decreasing order of importance, (a) analysis quality (reliance on
logical arguments, conceptual coherence, use of literature, originality of the ideas), (b)
interestingness and innovativeness of the proposed applications/chosen examples, and (c) clarity
and structure of the document.

Part of your grade for this assignment will be determined by your contribution to the group, as
evaluated by your fellow group members. You will evaluate your fellow group members using the
following scale:

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10: Contributed to the group’s project fully – this group member was fully engaged, responsive,
thoughtful, constructive, and collaborative.

5: Participated in the development of the group project, but did not do so to the extent that other
group members did. This might mean that this group member did not contribute novel insights to
the project and/or offered only minimal feedback to others.

0: Failed to contribute. This may mean that they missed meetings, did not respond to
communications, offered little in the way of feedback, or were destructive or divisive within the
group.

The contribution scores given by your teammates will be averaged and will constitute 1/3 of the
grade for this assignment.

Primary learning objectives: O1, O3, O5

Deadline: Sunday March 1 at midnight

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ASSESSMENT PLAN AND SUMMARY OF DEADLINES

The table below contains the course’s assessment plan. It links each assignment with the course’s objectives and summarizes the key
features of the assignments. It includes also as a summary of the assignment deadlines.

Course: AI in Our Lives Assessment information

A1: Class A2: A3: A4:
After following this course, Total
participation AI experiences Chatbot design Industry audit
O1: Students will understand the value-
X X X X 30%
creating potential of AI for products
O2: Students will understand the
psychological processes that govern X X 20%
individuals’ reactions to automation
O3: Students will acquire effective tools
for combining human and machine X X X 20%
intelligence in decision making
O4: Students will learn how to design
X X X 20%
positive consumer AI experiences
O5: Students will learn to reflect on the
way AI is changing their own lives, as X X X X 10%
well as business practice
SUBMISSION DEADLINES NA February 15 February 22 March 1
Percentage grade 20% 30% 20% 30% 100%
Deliverable NA Pdf file GPT link Pdf file
Assignment type (Group/Individual) Individual Individual Individual Group

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