Ahmed Ibrahim

Research Scientist

Ahmed Ibrahim is a Research Scientist in the Management Division at Columbia Business School, where he works with Professor Sheena Iyengar in the Choice Intelligence Lab. His research examines how entrepreneurial ideas become realities. Specifically, he studies how entrepreneurs and innovators identify, evaluate, and pursue business opportunities, and how AI changes the mechanisms that convert those opportunities into value. His work spans two complementary threads: how people solve problems and generate innovative ideas, and how new venture ideas are evaluated and developed into viable business opportunities. He received his PhD in the Learning Sciences from McGill University. He also holds a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from New York University and a Chief AI Officer executive certificate from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is completing an Executive MBA at Columbia Business School.

Ongoing Projects

Title: Which Ideas Are Worth Pursuing? Using AI to Evaluate New Venture Ideas

Description: Most people stop at the first idea that seems good enough, even when a better one is within reach. This project uses AI to evaluate new business ideas against research-based criteria for what makes an opportunity promising, drawing on thousands of real crowdfunding campaigns to test which factors predict success. The goal is a practical tool that helps entrepreneurs and innovators judge their ideas more rigorously and keep improving them before committing time and money.