Scientists in the same building often never meet. Kevin Boudreau is building AI versions of them to fix that — and what he's finding changes how we think about platforms, collaboration, and who AI actually helps.

Kevin runs large-scale field experiments on how knowledge gets created and shared. His digital twins project deploys AI representations of real scientists to interact with each other on campus, lowering the cost of the collaboration that humans keep skipping. His hiring study found the opposite problem: when job seekers knew AI was screening them, the best candidates were a third less likely to apply. AI promised efficiency. In both cases, it's delivering something more complicated.In this conversation with Professor Paula Caligiuri, Kevin connects these findings to a bigger shift: platforms built on crowd knowledge are under pressure, and the organizations that adapt fastest will be the ones that figure out where humans still have an edge.

Kevin Boudreau is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Research Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Quantitative Social Science.

🤖 The digital twins experiment: how AI versions of scientists "go have coffee" with colleagues their human counterparts would never approach

📉 The hiring study result that surprised even Kevin: the most capable candidates opted out of AI-screened jobs at the highest rate

🔒 Why the iPhone App Store model is under structural pressure as the cost of building software approaches zero

🧠 What peer review actually gets right and wrong about organizing knowledge at scale — and why it matters for AI

🔬 Why AI can evaluate existing knowledge well but still can't predict what's genuinely new

🎯 How to design an experiment that generates real learning even if the main goal fails

About the Guest:

Kevin Boudreau is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research uses large-scale field experiments to study platform design, digital twins, AI-enabled organizations, and the economics of scientific discovery. He holds a PhD from MIT and has previously taught at Harvard Business School, London Business School, and HEC-Paris.

Northeastern bio: https://damore-mckim.northeastern.edu/people/kevin-boudreau/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-boudreau-707b29/

Personal website: https://www.kevinboudreau.com/

About the Host:

Paula Caligiuri is a Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business and co-host of International Business Today. Her research focuses on cultural agility, global leadership, and workforce development.Northeastern: https://damore-mckim.northeastern.edu/people/paula-caligiuri/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulacaligiuri🎬

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/QomfgGEiBL4

International Business Today Podcast:

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🎓 Ready to lead in a world of platforms and AI? Explore Northeastern's online business programs → https://online.northeastern.edu/

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