ICMM 2026 Conference Keynote Speaker

Professor Balaji Padmanabhan

Director of the Center for AI in Business, and the Dean's Professor of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland

Title: Artificial Intelligence and Small Businesses: Opportunities and Challenges

Professor Balaji Padmanabhan is the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Director of the Center for AI in Business, and the Dean's Professor of Decision, Operations, and Information Technologies at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and a PhD from New York University (NYU)'s Stern School of Business. His current work addresses the intentional design and governance of artificial and augmented intelligence solutions that combine AI and human capabilities to generate value. He has worked on artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives with several organizations spanning manufacturing, retail, services, technology, healthcare, and policy. He publishes and teaches graduate courses in artificial intelligence and business and has served in senior editorial capacities of leading journals, including MIS Quarterly, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Information Systems Research, Management Science, Big Data, ACM Transactions on MIS, and the Journal of Business Analytics.