Taught the first class of 70-445 Artificial Intelligence for Business Leaders, a new undergraduate course I built. Students learn how AI works, work hands-on with AI agents, and then judge where AI creates value across marketing, finance, operations, and strategy, and how to defend that judgment to executives.
Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics
Ben Collier
I teach AI and business analytics at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School, and help companies put them to work.
Most of my teaching is at Tepper, in the MBA, the MS in Business Analytics, and the undergraduate program. I also teach at Heinz College. The courses are hands-on. Students write Python, reason about uncertainty, and decide what a model should and should not be used for once it leaves the notebook.
Before joining Tepper I was a staff data scientist at Duolingo and Senior Director of Data Science at UPMC's Pensiamo, where I was the founding data scientist on a joint venture with IBM Watson Health. I still do that work, as Senior Director of AI and Data Science at gAIm Systems and through my consulting practice, Hot Metal AI. The problems I bring into class come from that work. I also advise MS in Business Analytics capstone teams, and starting in Spring 2027, capstone teams in the MBA Business Analytics track.
- 4courses I designed from scratch
- 10courses taught at Carnegie Mellon since 2023
- 13capstones and independent studies advised since 2024
- 2026George Leland Bach Teaching Award, voted by the MBA class
Courses I built
70-445
Artificial Intelligence for Business Leaders
Where AI creates value in a business, where it does not, and how to explain the difference to the people paying for it.
45-884
AI Methods for Social and Visual Data
Using AI on text, networks, and images, and knowing when the output is ready for a decision.
70-377
Managing and Assessing Tech Talent and Organizations
How to hire, develop, and evaluate technical people using evidence instead of instinct.
Math Skills
MS in Business Analytics Math Skills Workshop
The math incoming MS in Business Analytics students need before the quantitative core begins.
News
Started the third run of 45-884 AI Methods for Social and Visual Data, with agents moved earlier in the term and a summary and cleaned transcript for students after every class.
Finished recording the MS in Business Analytics Math Skills Workshop, a self-paced course for incoming MS in Business Analytics students that runs from algebra through gradient descent, PCA, and statistical inference.
George Leland Bach Teaching Award, voted by the MBA Class of 2026.
Really proud of this summer's AI Methods final projects. Three of the nineteen are already in use, and they range from social listening on an aircraft maker's safety crisis to an offline tool that helps bomb-disposal teams identify ordnance.