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STOCKHOLM SCHOOL
OF ECONOMICS

Involving AI in high-stakes decisions in real organisations - 13 Mar 2026

AI is increasingly shaping high-stakes decisions in organisations, from hiring to innovation funding, yet its real impact on outcomes and processes remains unclear. This event brought together researchers and technology builders to explore how AI-driven decision tools are designed, deployed, and what they ultimately mean for firms and individuals.
Start time: 2026-03-13 at 08:30
End time: 2026-03-13 at 10:00
Location: Stockholm School of Economics

Both generative AI and traditional data-driven approaches have been increasingly incorporated into decision processes across a variety of industries. How they affect decision-making processes and outcomes, however, is not fully understood. The stakes are high - whether it’s allocating scarce resources toward innovative ideas, or selecting among eligible candidates for job positions.

In this event, we heared from technology pioneers and academic researchers who have been on the frontline, building tools or conducting experiments to incorporate AI into decision-making in organisations. We discussed not only the implications of deploying tools for firm and individual outcomes, but also got a glimpse into how these technologies are built and adapted to drive high-stake decision processes in the first place.

Panelists

Lele Cao

Research Lead at Microsoft Gaming (King)

Lele Cao is a Senior Principal AI Researcher and Research Lead at Microsoft Gaming (King). He earned his Ph.D. in AI & Robotics from Tsinghua University, jointly with The University of Melbourne, in 2016. With 16+ years of industry research & engineering experience across private equity (EQT Motherbrain), gaming (Microsoft/King), telecom (Ericsson & Elisa), geoinformatics (Amap), e-commerce (Alibaba), and AI4Science (CSPaper.org), he has published in leading conferences including NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR, AAAI, EMNLP, IJCAI, AISTATS, and KDD, and regularly serves as a reviewer. He has supervised 15 Master’s and 2 Ph.D. students. His current research focuses on AI-content detection, graphs & temporal modeling, agentic reinforcement learning, multimodal LLM evaluation.

Luca Henkel (online)

Assistant Professor of Finance at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Luca Henkel is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He received his PhD in 2023 from the University of Bonn and subsequently spent a year as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on behavioral economics, household finance, and the economics of artificial intelligence. In particular, he uses large-scale natural field experiments to study the real-world impacts of AI, with a focus on identifying the capabilities and limitations of AI tools in organizational decision-making processes. His recent work provides evidence on the economic and behavioral consequences of employing AI agents in recruiting.

Moderated by

Ruiqing "Sam" Cao

Assistant Professor, SSE House of Innovation

Sam Cao researches the socio-economic impacts of digital technologies and teaches data science and technology strategy at the House of Innovation.  

House of Innovation Artificial intelligence Governance Innovation Management Strategy Technology Industry seminar

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