About
Forty yearsat this intersection.
Founded in 1986, the Institute approaches its fortieth anniversary at the University of Miami Business School. Its subject is the human side of artificial intelligence in organizations: how leaders decide with it, how organizations adapt around it, how professionals work alongside it, and how it is governed.
How artificial intelligence augments, displaces, or reshapes human work is a management question. How organizations govern it responsibly is a leadership question. How the next generation is prepared to work alongside it is a question of values. Business schools are built for questions of that kind. The Institute brings the school's research strength in technology and organizations to bear on them.
The Institute takes a sociotechnical and design-oriented view of artificial intelligence in organizations, applied to adoption, transformation, governance, and impact. Its commitments are augmentation over automation, agency over abdication, and human judgment at the center.
Mission
The Institute studies what the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence means for people, organizations, and society.
Leadership.
Managing Director
Robert W. Gregory, PhD
Robert W. Gregory is Managing Director of the Institute and Associate Professor of Business Technology at the University of Miami Business School. He was appointed Managing Director effective August 1, 2026.
His research examines how organizations transform with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and data network effects, algorithmic management, digital platforms, and the governance of intelligent systems. His work has appeared in the Academy of Management Review, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, the Journal of Management Information Systems, MIT Sloan Management Review, and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. He serves on the editorial review board of the Academy of Management Review and reviews for Organization Science, MIS Quarterly, and Information Systems Research.
He teaches digital transformation in the MBA and Online MBA programs, teaches qualitative research methods in the Executive DBA program, and designs and delivers executive education programs for corporate and government clients. He holds a PhD in Management Information Systems from Goethe University Frankfurt.
rwgregory@miami.edu
Administrative Director
Nina (Ni) Huang, PhD
Nina (Ni) Huang is Administrative Director of the Institute, Chair of the Department of Business Technology, Professor of Business Technology, and the Dennis and Smith Family Endowed Chair at the University of Miami Business School.
She is a Senior Editor at Production and Operations Management and an Associate Editor at Information Systems Research.
Institute Fellow
Maikel Leon Espinosa, PhD
Maikel Leon Espinosa is an AI Institute Fellow and leads the Institute's undergraduate AI research initiatives. Institute Fellows lead designated programs of the Institute.
Undergraduate research →How the Institute is run
The Institute sits within the University of Miami Business School. The Managing Director leads its mission, programs, and industry relationships and reports to the Administrative Director. An Industry Advisory Board, chaired by Hari Kumar and being built out now, advises on direction.
Industry Advisory Board →People.
Research at the Institute is led by faculty of the Department of Business Technology and colleagues across the school. Each area of focus has a named research lead.
Managing Director · Research leadRobert W. Gregory, PhD
Scaling Intelligence in Organizations
Administrative DirectorNina (Ni) Huang, PhD
Chair, Department of Business Technology
Institute FellowMaikel Leon Espinosa, PhD
Undergraduate AI research initiatives
Research leadOla Henfridsson, PhD
Theory and Application of Blockchain
Research leadKevin Hong, PhD
Emerging Technologies
Research leadRobert Plant, PhD
Validation and Verification of Intelligent Systems
Research leadStuart L. Pardau, JD
Ethics of Systems and Human Interaction
FacultyNiam Yaraghi, PhD
Health information technology and policy
History.
The Institute is the single asset no competing school can copy: forty years of continuous work on intelligent systems in business, started before the field had its current name.
- 1986The Intelligent Computer Systems Research Institute is established at the University of Miami by David Bendel Hertz, who brought risk analysis into business decision-making and helped found the professional societies that became INFORMS.
- 1996Hertz steps back from day-to-day leadership. Robert Plant leads the Institute, concentrating its work on the validation and verification of artificial intelligence systems.
- 2026Robert W. Gregory is appointed Managing Director and Nina Huang Administrative Director. The agenda broadens to artificial intelligence, management, and organizations, returning to the intersection its founder built it for.
- 2027The Industry Advisory Board is seated and the Institute's annual Miami conference on artificial intelligence and innovation runs February 5 and 6.
Contact.
Robert W. Gregory, Managing Director
rwgregory@miami.edu
AI Institute
University of Miami Business School
5250 University Drive
Coral Gables, FL 33146
The Institute's formal name of record is the Intelligent Computer Systems Research Institute. It refers to itself in public communication as the AI Institute.