Please be advised: the information contained on this page is a general overview of the course. As course information is subject to change from one semester to another, please check DukeHub for the most accurate and up-to-date information about EGRMGMT courses.
At a Glance
- Instructor(s): Daniel Egger
- Semester(s) typically taught: new Spring 2026 course
- Units: 3.0
- Grading scale: Graded (A-F)
- Required or elective for MEM degree? Elective
Course Description/Synopsis
AI and the Future of Work is a new MEM course that offers our best current understanding of how AI will impact consumer products, corporate workflows, business strategies and career paths over the next five to ten years.
- Is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) near, with Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) to follow as an existential threat?
- Is this technology powerful enough to endanger humanity?
- Or is AI a hype-driven bubble that will soon collapse?
- Can both things be true at once?
Taught by Daniel Egger, whose personal AI entrepreneurship dates back to the 1990s, and who has licensed his AI inventions to Google, Microsoft, and other industry leaders, this course is a grand tour of one of the most impactful new technologies since the industrial revolution.
New LLM and GAN technologies are transformational but not magic, and it is vital to understand what exactly they are, and are not, capable of from an engineering point of view. While the course is non-technical, it includes a review of the present AI “state of the art.” Students will get hands-on experience using the latest AI tools for deep research, agents, vibe coding, etc., and will become comfortable with the specialized terminology used in the field.
We will read the latest peer-reviewed research on the current impact of AI on job markets and worker productivity. And we will examine the economic history of prior technology transformations – from telecom and the Internet to electrification, internal combustion engines and railroads – for clues as to the pace and impact of new technology adoption, and the ways the job market and economy adapts.
We will examine the business strategies of the “Hyperscalers” who are currently spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year in a race to dominate AI markets. And we will look back at the long history of computing and AI to gain insight into the most probable paths forward, and identify the most promising opportunities for entrepreneurship and the emergence of new industry sectors.
In the Spring of 2026, AI and the Future of Work, EGRMGMT 590.05 (7693), will be taught on Wednesdays from 6:15-9:00 pm in Wilkinson 126. Please direct any questions to Daniel Egger at daniel.egger@duke.edu.
