A New Vision of the Digital Future

Breakthrough technologies will continue to transform our world at an ever-increasing pace, and we need to do more than simply keep up. We need to continue building skills that will be transferable as technology continues to rapidly evolve.

That’s precisely the ongoing philosophy behind Columbia Business School’s Digital Future Initiative (DFI), which recently introduced four specialized labs that will draw on faculty expertise to tackle the most significant topics in the digital future: the algorithmic economy, the emerging world of decentralized finance, how technology is affecting people in organizations, and technology’s impact on media and entertainment.

“As the digital economy continues to expand—with new products, business practices, and careers in big data, digital finance, and algorithmic decision-making—our labs will guide the way with research on technology, ethics, and management,” explains Dean Costis Maglaras.

In the articles below, you’ll gain insights into the focus of each lab, as communicated by its faculty leader, as well as a summary of the current state of digital transformation in the areas each lab covers. The DFI’s labs will place significant emphasis on research activities that explore new and challenging questions about the digital economy. These insights will offer a deeper understanding of the digital transformation of business, while connecting the insights of the business community and academia in a two-way exchange.

Collaboration among the labs will be important, too, and open up even more productive areas of inquiry, while continuing to sharpen the School’s curriculum for students and alumni, and acknowledging the wide-ranging effects of digital disruption on our economy and society.

It’s the kind of revolutionary approach that has always defined the School: a bold embrace of change combined with disciplined analysis.