Intro

AI tools are becoming part of daily work for more professionals than ever before, yet adoption rates vary significantly across functions and company sizes. What separates organizations that successfully integrate AI from those that struggle? How do psychological factors like identity and autonomy shape how workers respond to AI implementation? And what role does corporate culture play in determining whether AI becomes a source of innovation or a point of resistance?

Stefano Puntoni is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School. Prior to joining Penn, Stefano was a professor of marketing and head of department at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, in the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in marketing from London Business School and a degree in Statistics and Economics from the University of Padova, in his native Italy.

His research has appeared in several leading journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Nature Human Behavior, and Management Science. He also writes regularly for managerial outlets such as Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Most of his ongoing research investigates how new technology is changing consumption and society, including how humans are adopting and evolving with AI.

He is a former MSI Young Scholar and MSI Scholar, and the winner of several grants and awards. He is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Research and at the Journal of Marketing. Stefano teaches in the areas of marketing strategy, new technologies, brand management, and decision making.

In the episode, Richie and Stefano explore the challenges of AI adoption in businesses, the psychological impacts on workers, the balance between human expertise and AI, the potential mental health effects of AI chatbots, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

1. Wharton School
2. Connect with Stefano
3. MIT Report—The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025
4. Wharton Report—Gen AI Fast-Tracks Into the Enterprise
5. AI-Native Course: Intro to AI for Work
6. Related Episode: How to Build AI Your Users Can Trust with David Colwell, VP of AI & ML at Tricentis
7. Explore AI-Native Learning on DataCamp

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