Paper Type
ERF
Abstract
Higher-education entrepreneurship programs seldom integrate cognitive-science insights or human-centred information-systems (IS) design, resulting in sporadic gains in students’ creativity and entrepreneurial readiness. We present early findings from an exploratory case study that embeds a conversational AI coach, grounded in empathy, critical design futures thinking, and Socratic dialogue, into a university-wide interdisciplinary design-innovation course. The AI coach dynamically scaffolds reflection, metacognition, and iterative prototyping. Using an explanatory-sequential mixed-methods design, we administer a validated entrepreneurial readiness survey (pre/post) to 100 undergraduates and complement the quantitative shifts with think-aloud interviews and focus-group discussions. Planned analyses will test whether AI-mediated cognitive engagement predicts significant improvements in entrepreneurial readiness and collaborative innovation skills. Findings suggest students’ heightened self-reflection, reframing of problem statements, as they test assumptions and develop dispositions like resilience and adaptability. Findings aim to extend human-centred IS theory and provide design principles for ethically scaling adaptive, cognition-aware entrepreneurial coaching.
Paper Number
2124
Recommended Citation
Patel, Nadya Shaznay; Avnit, Karin; Koh, Jeffrey T.K.V.; Lim, Jawn; Tay, Peter; and Supian, Hedirman, "Designing a Human-Centered AI Coach for Entrepreneurial Readiness: Fostering Empathy and Critical Design Futures Thinking in Interdisciplinary Learning" (2025). AMCIS 2025 Proceedings. 10.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2025/sig_core/sig_core/10
Designing a Human-Centered AI Coach for Entrepreneurial Readiness: Fostering Empathy and Critical Design Futures Thinking in Interdisciplinary Learning
Higher-education entrepreneurship programs seldom integrate cognitive-science insights or human-centred information-systems (IS) design, resulting in sporadic gains in students’ creativity and entrepreneurial readiness. We present early findings from an exploratory case study that embeds a conversational AI coach, grounded in empathy, critical design futures thinking, and Socratic dialogue, into a university-wide interdisciplinary design-innovation course. The AI coach dynamically scaffolds reflection, metacognition, and iterative prototyping. Using an explanatory-sequential mixed-methods design, we administer a validated entrepreneurial readiness survey (pre/post) to 100 undergraduates and complement the quantitative shifts with think-aloud interviews and focus-group discussions. Planned analyses will test whether AI-mediated cognitive engagement predicts significant improvements in entrepreneurial readiness and collaborative innovation skills. Findings suggest students’ heightened self-reflection, reframing of problem statements, as they test assumptions and develop dispositions like resilience and adaptability. Findings aim to extend human-centred IS theory and provide design principles for ethically scaling adaptive, cognition-aware entrepreneurial coaching.
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