Episode Description

Throughout his career, Avi has studied how people and organizations respond to technological change. His research on the commercial internet showed that adoption depends on far more than the technology itself. It is shaped by incentives, industries, and existing ways of working.

That perspective continues to shape his work today. Rather than asking only what new technologies can do, Avi focuses on how businesses and individuals decide when and whether to embrace them. Understanding behavior is often the key to understanding innovation.

As a graduate student in the late 1990s, Avi became interested in the internet when its long-term impact was still uncertain. While economic frameworks already existed, there were few answers about how digital markets would evolve.

By applying those tools to emerging technologies, Avi and his collaborators helped build a foundation for understanding internet adoption and digital markets. The experience reinforced a lesson that continues to guide his work: new technologies often create opportunities to revisit old questions in entirely new ways.

Avi's research helped demonstrate how advances in data and experimentation transformed the study of marketing. Better evidence challenged long-held assumptions and provided a clearer understanding of consumer behavior. As technology evolves, the ability to measure outcomes often becomes just as important as the innovations themselves.

Many of the debates surrounding artificial intelligence have roots in earlier discussions about digital advertising, privacy, and data. Throughout his career, Avi has studied the tradeoffs that emerge when innovation, competition, and consumer protection collide.

He argues that effective policymaking begins with understanding those tradeoffs rather than searching for simple answers. The same tensions that shaped earlier digital markets are now influencing applications of AI.