About

Ravi Bapna is the Curtis. Carlson Chair Professor in Business Analytics and Information Systems and serves as the Academic Director of the Carlson Analytics Lab at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. He is closely affiliated with the Carlson School's MS in Business Analytics program and the Carlson Analytics Lab, where graduate students study a broad range of data analysis techniques and apply them to real business problems. These students are skilled in exploratory data visualization, predictive analytics techniques, programming, data engineering, machine learning methods, and more, emerging as data science professionals. Partner organizations have the opportunity to work with these talented students while supporting the educational mission of the programs.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Advertising
• Medicine
• Internet privacy
• Business
• Economics
• Public relations
• World Wide Web
• Marketing
• Knowledge management
• Microeconomics

Selected publications

• Using Generative AI and Agentic AI to Unlock Potential of Data-Driven Leadership and Democratize Traditional AI Leaders have to Overcome the Three Is of Inertia, Ignorance and Imagination

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Realism and AI Disclosure on Virtual Influencer Effectiveness: A Large Field Experiment

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Agentic AI and Structured vs. Self-guided learning

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-07-23

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Pricing Strategies in Online Education

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Effective Referrals

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-10-21

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Agentic AI and Structured vs. Self-guided learning

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-07-23

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Agentic AI and Managers' Analytics Capabilities: An Exploration

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Effective Referrals

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-10-21

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Realism and AI Disclosure on Virtual Influencer Effectiveness: A Large Field Experiment

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Thrive

  The MIT Press eBooks · 2024-02-27 · 5 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  How AI can positively impact so many aspects of our daily lives, from health and wellness to work, education, and home life. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful general-purpose technology that is reshaping the modern economy, but misperceptions about AI stand in the way of harnessing it for the betterment of humanity. In Thrive, Ravi Bapna and Anindya Ghose counter the backlash by showcasing how AI is positively influencing the aspects of our daily lives that we care about most: our health and wellness, relationships, education, the workplace, and domestic life. In the process the authors help explain the underlying technology and give people the agency they need to shape the debate around how we should regulate AI to maximize its benefits and minimize its risks. Bringing over two decades of experience with cutting-edge research, consulting, executive coaching, and advising to bear on the subject, Bapna and Ghose demystify the technology of AI itself. They offer a novel “House of AI” framework that encompasses traditional analytics, generative AI, and fair and ethical deployment of AI. Using examples from everyday life, they showcase how the modern AI-powered ecosystem fundamentally improves the emotional, physical, and material well-being of regular people across the globe. Thrive's mission is to educate the public about AI, shape realistic expectations, and foster informed discussions about a fast-emerging AI-shaped society.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alok Gupta

  42 shared

• Paulo Góes

  Tulane University

  16 shared

• Jaehwuen Jung

  15 shared

• Galit Shmueli

  14 shared

• Ram D. Gopal

  14 shared

• Akhmed Umyarov

  14 shared

• Jui Ramaprasad

  12 shared

• Tianshu Sun

  Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

  10 shared

Awards & honors

• INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow award
• INFORMS ISS Inaugural Practical Impacts Award
• INFORMS ISS Haim Mendelson Teaching Innovation Award