IKNS Conversations that Matter: Business Anthropology at Work: Making AI a Human Multiplier
You may access this online program using the following link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/97311191811
Meeting ID: 973 1119 1811
Or Join by Phone:
+16469313860, 97311191811# US
+16468769923, 97311191811# US (New York)
Date: December 4, 2025
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ET
EVENT SUMMARY
Business Anthropology at Work: Making AI a Human Multiplier
AI promises sharper insights and faster decisions, but only if it strengthens human judgment rather than replacing it. IKNS Prof. Jessica Malloy will moderate a discussion with Culture Consultancy’s Dr. Drew Jones and organizational change expert Dr. Matthew Hill around how insights from Business Anthropology can help organizations use AI to become more human and less bureaucratic.
LOGISTICS
This event will be held online. The link to join virtually will be provided within 24 hours of the event.
Not able to attend this session? Register anyway to ensure that you receive a recording of the session to view at your convenience.
For questions, please contact Christoph Meinrenken at cjm2177 [[at]] columbia [[dot]] edu.
ABOUT THE EVENT
AI promises sharper insights and faster decisions, yet many organizations are finding it harder than ever for people to truly understand one another across roles, backgrounds, and experiences. This conversation asks a bigger question: What kind of organizations do we want AI to help us build?
Rooted in the perspective of the new Business Anthropology course in Columbia’s MS in Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS), this event explores how people, culture, and technology shape organizational life and how AI can become a human multiplier rather than a force that widens disconnects. In an era in which the sheer amount of information often grows faster than our understanding of it, Business Anthropology offers leaders the tools to see context clearly, listen across differences, and avoid costly blind spots.
In this fall’s installment of the IKNS Conversations that Matter series, Culture Consultancy’s Dr. Drew Jones and organizational change expert Dr. Matthew Hill will trace the story from early workplace studies and user-centered design to today’s generative AI, showing how human-centered ways of seeing can guide AI-enabled organizations toward better choices. Through concrete examples, they’ll discuss how to reduce bureaucracy, strengthen trust, and push decisions closer to the people doing the work. They will also explore how “hybrid” workflows, where machines handle the heavy parsing and humans frame problems and interpret meaning, can reconnect organizations internally, not fragment them further.
The session, moderated by Business Anthropology instructor Jessica Malloy, will close with a practical checklist to help leaders connect AI investments to what truly matter: clearer understanding, faster learning, and better decisions grounded in human judgment.
About the IKNS Conversations That Matter series
“One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever.”
Linda Lambert
Conversations That Matter is a series of public education events that bring the thinkers, doers, and experts of the IKNS community together with a broader audience of curious minds from across Columbia University and beyond. These conversations tackle topics that are not only timely and relevant, but also at the core of the Information & Knowledge Strategy discipline. Through the fruitful exchange of ideas and the sharing of knowledge by industry experts, distinguished academics, and thought innovators at the leading edge of their fields, we hope to ignite further discussion and action leading to positive change in organizations, communities, and industry.
This series is brought to you by Columbia University’s M.S. in Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS) program as part of the University’s ongoing commitment to advancing knowledge with the purpose of moving careers, communities, and markets forward.
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To obtain additional information about program offerings at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, please contact an Admissions Counselor at inquire [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu.
If you require closed captioning, sign-language interpretation or any other disability accommodations, please contact Disability Services, disability [[at]] columbia [[dot]] edu, at least 10 days in advance. Services requested less than 10 days in advance cannot be guaranteed.
This event is open to individuals irrespective of identity and sex.