In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, technological innovation is reshaping industries and creating an unprecedented demand for talented individuals with cutting-edge skills. At the forefront of this transformation are fields such as machine learning, algorithm design, data analytics, intelligent manufacturing, robotics, and AI. While technical expertise is vital, the sustained growth and evolution of industries hinge on visionary leaders with both strategic insight and the ability to integrate innovative technologies into business strategies. These leaders must expertly navigate the complexities of an AI-driven economy, promoting both sustainable growth and continuous innovation in their organisations. Recognising this critical need, PolyU Business School is proud to introduce the Doctor of Business Artificial Intelligence (DBAI) programme. Designed specifically for senior executives and business leaders, this groundbreaking programme encompasses core disciplines such as AI, Business Intelligence, Generative AI and Prompt Engineering. Participants master cutting-edge AI technologies through a blend of systematic learning and practical application, empowering them to tackle complex challenges, drive transformative change, and foster industry-wide innovation.

Prof. Michael Mei Associate Professor Department of Management and Marketing

Since the 1990s, PolyU Business School has been a trailblazer in offering professional doctoral programmes that cultivate scholar-leaders. With dual accreditation from AACSB and EQUIS, the school has consistently provided a comprehensive platform for executives and industry leaders to develop professionally, blending academic research with business practice. Following the success of the school’s Doctor of Business Administration programme, launched 28 years ago, the DBAI represents the next evolution in preparing leaders for the challenges of the digital era.

The DBAI curriculum is meticulously designed to foster innovation and strategic acumen. Key modules include applying Generative AI, integrating AI agents into business, and evolving trends in AI technologies. These modules equip participants with the tools to drive innovation, automate business processes, and develop intelligent products in their organisations. By cultivating a mindset of technological innovation, the programme positions its graduates as transformative agents who enable their businesses to thrive in the digital age.

PolyU Business School's commitment to advancing AI research is also reflected in the pioneering work of its faculty. My own recent research, for instance, highlights challenges and opportunities in AI-driven applications. One study, titled Multi-agent Attacks for Black-box Social Recommendations, explores the vulnerabilities of social recommender systems – a type of recommendation system that leverages social data to provide personalised suggestions to users – based on graph neural networks, a type of artificial neural network designed to process data structured as graphs. This study explores how adversarial attacks using malicious user profiles and social connections can disrupt recommendation systems. By proposing a novel multi-agent reinforcement learning framework, it exemplifies the school's focus on addressing critical challenges in AI and on making technological systems more resilient.

Another study, Recommender Systems in the Era of Large Language Models (LLMs), systematically reviews the transformative role of LLMs such as ChatGPT and GPT-4 in enhancing recommender systems. This study outlines how LLMs can overcome limitations in traditional deep neural network-based systems, offering groundbreaking advancements through pre-training, fine-tuning, and prompting techniques.

A third study, When Words Meet Images: Enhancing Online Review Sentiment Prediction Using a Cross-Modal Interactive Learning Network, suggests that by using both text and images to analyse online reviews, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of customer sentiments, leading to better customer experiences and more effective marketing strategies. This study found that combining text and image data using advanced AI techniques leads to better sentiment prediction than using only text or only images without considering how text and images interact. This has practical implications: businesses, particularly online travel agencies and e-commerce platforms, can use these advanced methods to better understand customer reviews, which can help improve customer engagement and satisfaction. Meanwhile, social media managers can use these insights to create marketing campaigns that better connect with customer emotions, thereby fostering stronger brand loyalty.

Such research underscores the school’s dedication to using the power of AI to pioneer novel solutions to real-world challenges.

The DBAI programme also offers a global perspective, featuring opportunities for overseas learning at renowned institutions such as the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). These experiences allow participants to connect with international scholars and business leaders, expand their global networks, and gain invaluable insights into diverse business ecosystems.

As PolyU Business School continues to pioneer top-tier professional doctoral programmes, it reaffirms its commitment to developing leaders who can bridge the gap between technology and strategy. With a proven track record spanning nearly three decades, the school’s dedication to nurturing scholar-leaders ensures that its graduates can lead and innovate in an increasingly AI-driven world.

The world is witnessing the transformative potential of AI. What it needs now is visionary leaders who are ready to harness the power of AI to propel their organisations into the future. The DBAI programme is more than an academic endeavour; it is a platform to create high-impact leaders who will shape the business landscape for years to come.

At the DBAI Networking Luncheon