Harvard Business School has always carried serious weight in the world of entrepreneurship education. Now it is adding a new kind of instructor to its roster, one that never sleeps, never gets impatient, and occasionally delivers feedback with a slightly frozen smile. The school’s eight-week HBS Foundry bootcamp, priced at $699, is using AI-generated avatars built by startup HeyGen to give personalized feedback to aspiring founders during practice pitches and simulated board meetings.
What the AI Avatar Experience Actually Looks Like
Participants in the Foundry program attend live sessions with real instructors each week, but when it comes to rehearsing pitches, they face digital replicas of real investors and educators. One of those replicas is modeled after Flybridge Capital co-founder Jeff Bussgang. Testers who pitched the avatar reported it offered substantive critical feedback, though the virtual version’s expression remained noticeably stiff throughout. Bussgang himself admitted his digital copy feels a little creepy, but he was quick to add that his students seem to genuinely enjoy it. That combination of mild uncanniness and practical usefulness captures something important about where AI tools in education currently stand.
Why HBS Leaned Into Avatars Over Simple Chatbots
The project did not start with avatars in mind. HBS Foundry’s director Katharina Rings originally imagined something closer to a conversational chatbot offering guidance. After releasing an early version for student testing, feedback was clear: participants wanted a richer, more guided experience that felt less like reading a FAQ and more like being in the room with a mentor. The shift toward video-based AI avatars was a direct response to that demand. It reflects a broader pattern in edtech, where passive AI tools are giving way to more immersive, interactive formats. The global online education market was valued at over $185 billion in 2023 and is projected to nearly double by 2030, meaning competition to deliver genuinely engaging digital learning is only intensifying.
Student Attitudes Are Shifting Faster Than Expected
There is a common assumption that younger learners push back hardest against AI in academic settings. Foundry participants largely flipped that script. Rather than expressing discomfort, students in the bootcamp told researchers they appreciated the avatars and found them useful for low-stakes practice. This matters because it signals growing acceptance of AI-assisted mentorship in professional education, particularly when the AI is framed as a practice tool rather than a replacement for human judgment. The distinction is subtle but important for how institutions market these programs going forward.
For consumers evaluating online learning platforms and professional development tools in 2025 and beyond, programs like HBS Foundry represent a new category worth watching. As AI avatars move from novelty to standard feature, buyers comparing bootcamps, coaching subscriptions, and edtech platforms will increasingly want to know not just who teaches, but what kind of AI support is built into the experience and how meaningfully it delivers on that promise.
