Our Team

Professor Julian De Freitas is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, consumer psychology, and ethics. As an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School and Director of the Ethical Intelligence Lab, he brings a deep understanding of how people perceive, evaluate, and interact with intelligent technologies—expertise that aligns directly with The Standard School of Machine Learning’s mission to cultivate responsible, human-centered innovation.

With academic training spanning Yale University (BA), the University of Oxford (master’s), and Harvard University (PhD in Psychology), Professor De Freitas has built a research program that reshapes how organizations and society understand AI. A central premise of his work is that consumers engage with AI not as a traditional, non-living technology, but as something inherently social and humanlike. This insight reveals why AI adoption often triggers unique expectations, concerns, and ethical questions. His research identifies the specific psychological features of AI that drive these perceptions, evaluates how firms can strategically leverage them to create value, and highlights associated risks for organizations, consumers, and society.

Much of his empirical work uses AI technologies themselves—autonomous vehicles, social chatbots, and other intelligent systems—as case studies to examine issues such as trust, safety, risk perception, and emotional connection. These investigations shed light on real-world challenges including road fatalities, the global loneliness crisis, and public resistance to automated systems. His approach connects the technical foundations of AI—its inputs, learning architectures, and optimization goals—with behavioral and ethical outcomes, offering managers a roadmap for building technologies that are both effective and responsible.

Professor De Freitas is an award-winning educator and scholar. He teaches “Creating Brand Value” in the MBA elective curriculum, “Consumer Behavior” in the doctoral curriculum, and has taught marketing in the required and executive programs. His contributions have earned him multiple teaching awards, including Harvard College’s Special Commendation for Distinguished Teaching. He is also the recipient of the Case Center Outstanding Case Writer Award and is a former Rhodes Scholar.

His scholarship includes more than 40 publications across leading journals such as Nature Human Behavior, Nature Medicine, Nature Mental Health, Nature Machine Intelligence, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to research, he has authored numerous business cases, advises startups, and consults for companies on AI adoption, ethics, insurance, and regulatory issues.

At TheSSML, Professor De Freitas contributes a vital perspective on the ethics and psychology of AI, helping students understand how intelligent systems shape human behavior—and how thoughtful design can advance trust, safety, and societal wellbeing in the age of machine intelligence.