Improving Entrepreneurial Skills by Practicing with AI

Abstract

Durable skills like critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration are essential for innovation, yet teaching them remains difficult. In this work, we focus on the entrepreneurial domain, where these skills and others are required, and ask whether AI can be used as a tool for improving entrepreneurial proficiency. As a first step towards this challenge, we present an extension of Vantage, a platform developed at Google Research, adapted to serve as an interactive practice environment for entrepreneurship. Vantage pairs students with simulated AI peers engineered to navigate realistic business scenarios and challenge learners to exercise key skills. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT) embedded in summer entrepreneurship programs run by The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), students using Vantage scored significantly higher on their Capstone Business Plans than control students with access to standard AI tools. These preliminary findings suggest that orchestrated AI peers can meaningfully support short-term performance on tasks requiring complex, durable skills.