Professor Phanish Puranam

Phanish Puranam is a Professor of Strategy, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Strategy and Organisation Design at INSEAD.

Phanish’s research in organization science focuses on how organizations work, and how we can make them work better. His current work focuses on different ways in which intelligent algorithms relate to organizations, in their roles as tools (e.g., machine learning applied to organizational data), team-mates (e.g., human-AI collaboration), and as templates for organizing (blockchain, metaverse).

Besides publishing his research extensively in peer reviewed journals, Phanish has also written several books. The Microstructure of Organizations (Oxford University Press, 2018) offers researchers a new perspective on organization design. Phanish’s books for practitioners include Corporate Strategy: Tools for Analysis and Decisions (co-authored with Bart Vanneste, Cambridge University Press, 2016) which is used as a reference in MBA programs around the world. India Inside (co-authored with Nirmalya Kumar, Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) won critical acclaim for its balanced look at the prospect of India emerging as a global hub for innovation. Recently, he also released Ver1.0 of the free The Organizational Analytics E-Book: A Guide to Data Driven Organization Design (with Julien Clement). He is currently working on two new books; “Rethinking Organizations” (Penguin Random House Publishers) explores what organizations of the future might look like, in the light of rapid changes in technology and culture, and “Hierarchy in Organizations” reviews what we have learned about the emergence, growth, stability and adaptive properties of hierarchies, as well as their limits.

At INSEAD, Phanish Puranam directs the Transforming Your Business with AI programme.

Phanish obtained his PhD at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, and was on the faculty of London Business School until 2012. Reflecting his commitment to doctoral training, he has served as the Academic Director for the PhD Program at both London Business School and INSEAD.

Talk Title

Human-AI Ensembles: Exploring the Possibilities

Talk Summary

Collaboration between humans and algorithms based on the logic of relative advantage is well understood. While it produces immediate gains in productivity, it can also have long term adverse consequences for human skills. In this talk, an alternative logic, based on assembling and aggregation of separately produced outputs by humans and algorithms, and creating a form of human-AI collaboration that preserves human skills, is proposed and analysed for two important cases: for prediction tasks and for creative ideation tasks.