Digital Technology Immersion for MBAs

Strategic Leadership in the Digital Economy and World of AI

Strategic leadership in the digital economy and the world of AI is a fast-paced, high-impact, and transformative career path, and the landscape for digital innovation is more competitive than ever. At the Johnson School, we surround students with a system of resources—from industry-leading practitioners to cutting-edge AI strategy coursework—curated to help them succeed in recruiting and throughout their careers. The Digital Technology Immersion (DTI)— part of our full-time MBA program— delivers the mix of theory, guest lectures, and real-world exposure via hands on projects and industry speakers to be well set up to succeed in roles in the Tech Industry and Consulting.

What Is the Digital Technology Immersion (DTI)?

Digital Technology Immersion (DTI) is a semester-long academic program that empowers you to lead with strategic business impact in the digital economy and the world of AI. Designed to prepare you for a successful internship and career managing digital products or services.

The immersion is structured to be curated yet flexible. The mandatory component focuses on how cutting-edge technologies—including Generative AI, Machine Learning, and Cloud—how they are transforming business models today. You will move beyond technical theory to master critical leadership tools, including scaling platforms, monetization strategies, digital transformation, reading a tech P&L. These concepts are brought to life through a unique combination of targeted coursework, guest lectures from executives at companies like Amazon and Meta, and a hands-on Practicum where you will solve real-world business challenges for leading technology companies under the guidance of expert industry coaches.

The flexible component of the immersion allows you to choose coursework depending on how deep you want to go into the world of AI and technology as well as functional electives which prepare you for various roles in Tech companies such as Product Management, Marketing, Operations, Corporate Finance, Strategy as well as for roles in Management Consulting firms.

Digital Technology Immersion Curriculum: What You Will Learn

Digital Technology Immersion combines a mandatory Digital Technology Practicum course with a curated list of Technical and Functional electives. You decide how much technical depth you want to acquire and what functional role you want to prepare for through your choices from these electives.

The Practicum has three interwoven components:

Technologies & Their Business Impact: Learn how cutting-edge technologies including AI are driving innovation, digital transformation and disruption
Strategic Fundamentals: Learn the strategic concepts, playbooks and business strategies relevant to the Tech industry to monetize, grow, and scale Digital and AI products.
Real Life Project: Work on a hands-on project in a team setting with leading Tech companies to solve real-world business challenges with the help of an industry coach. The projects are related to skills a Product Manager, a Marketing Manager, or Strategist would use in a Tech company.

Technical Electives: A curated list of electives includes learning SQL, Python, and courses related to AI strategy and building AI workflows and products. You can choose to do none or many of these.

Functional Electives: A curated list of electives that build on your Practicum and prepare you for roles in the Tech industry and Management Consulting. Roles in Tech include Product Management, Product Marketing, Corporate Finance and Strategy and Operations.

Sample Practicum Projects:

Build a prototype and sales pitch for an AI Customer Agent for Insurance Claims built on a leading Tech company’s Agent Platform

Deliver a business and GTM plan and mockups for a fractional investing service offering for a bank

Strategies to increase adoption of AI-native app development for a leading provider of Employee Services platform

Strategies to increase revenue and monetization for a leading Social Media platform

Develop Key Digital Skills

This robust and flexible immersion gives you grounding in cutting edge technologies and their business impact – concepts, strategies and playbooks to scale and build digital businesses. Our courses and practical experiences have a particular focus on:

Working in Teams

Build collaboration and communication skills to succeed on cross-functional teams.

Project Management

Build project management skills to keep your project on track

Strategic Thinking

Understand approaches for sound technology management and decision making

Digital Transformation

Learn how to harness technology to drive digital transformation

Presentation and Communication

Sharpen your presentation skills and drive stakeholder buy-in for your project findings

Latest Technologies

Build awareness of industry trends, from emerging platforms to implementation best practices.

Our Faculty: Digital Technology and Consulting Expertise

Digital Immersion courses are led by scholars with deep research experience in technology, as well as industry-leading practitioners who’ve worked with some of the biggest names in tech, such as Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, and Deloitte.

John Bayne

Corning

Courses: Digital Technology Practicum

Lutz Finger

Google, LinkedIn, Snap

Courses: AI Strategy & Applications

Chris Forman

Lehman Brothers

Courses: Digital Platform Strategy

Cesar Kastoun

Deloitte Consulting, Synaptics

Digital Technology Practicum

Vidur Luthra

Accenture, Microsoft

AI Strategy & Applications

Emaad Manzoor

Yahoo, Pinterest

Courses: AI Applications for Business

Career Paths: Where Business Meets Technology

With a rich, tech-focused curriculum, this digital immersion equips you for a wide range of positions across the tech sector. Three particularly popular career paths include:

Roles in Technology Companies:

Product Management, Product Marketing, Corporate Finance, Strategy and Operations

Two people sit in front of a laptop and a tablet reviewing documents.

Management Consulting in Tech & AI

A woman smiles at a phone while holding a package.

Entrepreneurship

Career Outcomes: Success in Tech

Our digital MBA students stand out to employers around the world, from Fortune 500 companies to startups of all kinds. They find internships and full-time positions with companies such as:

EXPLORE TWO-YEAR MBA EMPLOYMENT REPORT

A woman sits at a table looking forward with her chin resting on her fist.

Immersion Highlights: Cross-Campus Collaborations

Digital technology is all about collaboration. DTI branches beyond any one school or department. Not only will you be surrounded by your digital MBA peers, you will also learn alongside MPS and engineering students with degrees in computer science, engineering, and information science/UX/UI. This unique team setting is similar to what you will encounter as a product manager or tech consultant in the workplace.

Industry collaboration and exposure: this immersion gives you significant exposure via guest speakers and projects to real world implementation and business impact of some of the technologies and business concepts learned in class. Senior executives from Amazon, Meta, Deloitte, Microsoft et al have visited class. Our students complete projects with leading technology companies.

Deepen your understanding of AI:

Learn how AI is transforming businesses and deepen your understanding of the world of AI; learn to build workflows to AI product prototypes and roadmaps

In addition to the intensive, semester-long DTI, the Johnson School’s two-year MBA allows you to explore digital technology in many other ways, from electives to extracurricular experiences.

Areas of Focus: Choosing a Tech Specialty

During your immersion semester as well as second year in the MBA program, you can choose an area of focus, which allows you to use your elective credits to continue to build specialized skills and knowledge. Options that might appeal to tech-savvy students include:

Technology Product Management

Data Modeling & Analytics

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Consulting & Strategy

EXPLORE TWO-YEAR MBA FOCUS AREAS

Clubs and Organizations: Get Involved in the Tech Community

The Johnson School two-year MBA is full of extracurricular opportunities, including student organizations dedicated to the tech sector. Consider joining one or more to build skills—and build your network.

High Tech Club (HTC)

Aimed at helping its members land jobs and internships, this club offers a range of career-focused resources and events.

DISCOVER THE HTC

Cornell FinTech Club

This organization offers weekly discussions, team-based projects, career-focused programming, and social events.

EXPLORE CORNELL FINTECH CLUB

Johnson Consulting Club

Part of Johnson School’s rich consulting ecosystem, JCC offers career work groups, lectures, recruiting treks, and more.

LEARN ABOUT CONSULTING CLUB

Next Steps: Applying to the Johnson School

With the option to add the DTI, the Johnson School’s two-year MBA program is ideal for tech-focused business leaders. If this sounds like you, we encourage you to apply to our two-year program today.

Apply Now