AI is booming and Berkeley Haas students are flocking to–and spearheading–numerous opportunities in the MBA program.
In a roundup of the latest AI action on the California campus, Kim Girard, News Director & Media Relations at Haas, cited how hundreds of students are upping their AI skills to prepare for the future workplace and economy.
Student Efforts & Industry Input
More than 100 students attended the school’s first vibe coding workshop last year, a joint effort of the student-run Haas AI Club with the Haas Product Management Club, the Haas Technology Club, and the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association. Participants created personal websites, personalized news apps, and prototypes with various AI tools such as Loveable and Claude Code. Classes like Lean LaunchPad and AI for Entrepreneurship, a new elective that enrolled 57 full-time and evening & weekend MBA students, further supported students building apps and startups.
One MBA student, Pepe Alonso, ran a free four-week workshop, called From Zero to AI Agents, just last month. With an engineering background and master’s in AI, Alonso designed the workshop around building, implementing, and technically evaluating AI systems. He is looking forward to teaching a class based on the workshop in the fall. Additionally, Colton Hess, MBA/MPH ’26, committed to doing one-on-one Claude Code training with any MBA student who reaches out to him. He has scheduled more than 30 hour-long “activation” sessions to guide students on how to use Claude Code for their projects.
The AI community at Haas extends beyond current students to alumni and industry leaders. The co-founders of OpenAI and Perplexity AI both earned PhDs at UC Berkeley. Databricks and many other AI-focused startups have their roots at Berkeley, too. Moreover, the Bay Area is home to tech giants Anthropic, Google, Meta, Apple, Nvidia and AMD.
Girard reports, “On any given day, A-list execs from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Google, Meta, Apple, Nvidia, and AMD are visiting campus to speak at classes, attend hackathons, and volunteer as mentors. These execs contribute in many ways—from providing industry insights to giving quick feedback on a startup idea, to providing practical tips for landing a job at in a particular AI role.”
AI Certificate
All Berkeley Haas MBA students are eligible to earn the program’s new AI for Business graduate certificate. To earn the certificate, students must complete the Business for AI course, which launched in Spring 2026, and six additional units chosen from 30 available courses. Course topics range from data mining and data analytics to the use of AI in entrepreneurship, healthcare, new product development, and climate research. Courses that cover risks in security, privacy, and ethics are also available. Twenty-five faculty members from across all six Haas academic groups lead courses in the AI certificate program.
“Berkeley is a world leader in AI, and we want our students to be able to take advantage of that expertise as AI revolutionizes how business operates,” said Haas Dean Jenny Chatman. “From finance and accounting to marketing and operations, high-impact leaders must understand how to manage human teams who use AI strategically, creatively, and with good judgment to maximize their impact.”
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