Dong-Gil Ko

Dong-Gil Ko, PhD, is Professor of Operations, Business Analytics and Information Systems at the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business and Founder and Director of the HealthAI Research Lab. His research examines how organizations build the capabilities needed to convert data, knowledge, technology, and experience into better decisions, coordinated action, and sustained performance. His work lies at the intersection of organizational learning, knowledge management, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, operations, and information systems.

A central premise of Dr. Ko’s scholarship is that technology does not create organizational value on its own. Value emerges when organizations develop the leadership, governance, workflows, routines, and human capabilities required to integrate technology into everyday work. His research therefore addresses questions such as how knowledge moves across organizational and professional boundaries; how organizations learn from data and experience; how AI changes decision-making, expertise, and managerial attention; and how organizations can govern AI-enabled transformation while preserving trust, accountability, fairness, and human judgment.

Before entering academia, Dr. Ko spent nearly a decade working in consulting, information technology, and systems development, including roles at the Department of Defense, AT&T Wireless, and Microsoft. These experiences shaped his enduring interest in the organizational conditions that determine whether technology initiatives generate meaningful value or fail during implementation. Throughout his academic career, he has studied knowledge transfer, enterprise systems, project control and coordination, technology-enabled work, organizational learning, operational improvement, and AI-supported decision-making.

Dr. Ko’s current research focuses increasingly on AI-enabled organizational learning and the development of AI as an organizational capability rather than merely a collection of technical tools. He investigates how organizations can convert AI-generated insights into validated knowledge, repeatable routines, redesigned workflows, and improved outcomes. This work also examines the tensions created by accelerated learning, including the need to balance speed and adaptation with governance, oversight, reliability, and accountability. Although much of his recent translational research is situated in healthcare, the underlying theories and frameworks apply broadly to organizations seeking to deploy AI responsibly and at scale.

As Founder and Director of the HealthAI Research Lab, Dr. Ko leads convergence research involving business, medicine, informatics, operations, and data science. His collaborations with UC Health, the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Eli Lilly, Holmusk, and other organizations have addressed learning systems, decision support, population-level risk stratification, telehealth, workflow redesign, and responsible AI implementation. He has also served as an Epic Affiliate Consultant and contributed to patent-pending AI and digital-health innovations. These initiatives provide real-world settings for examining broader questions of organizational design, capability development, implementation, and technology-enabled transformation. His forthcoming book, Healthcare That Learns, brings these ideas together by examining how organizations can integrate data, evidence, technology, and human expertise to create systems that continuously learn, adapt, and improve.

Dr. Ko’s scholarship has appeared in leading journals across management, information systems, operations, and health informatics, including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Organization Science, Information Systems Research, the Journal of Operations Management, Health Care Management Review, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, and the Journal of Medical Internet Research. He has held editorial leadership roles with Information Systems Research and Information & Management and currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Internet Research. He also serves as Lead Guest Editor for a special theme issue examining the strategic implications of AI-enabled uncertainty.

Dr. Ko holds a PhD in Management Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh, an MBA from George Washington University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He has taught at the undergraduate, graduate, executive, and doctoral levels and received the Lindner College of Business’s 2019 Michael L. Dean EXCEL Award for Graduate Teaching. He has also supervised more than 40 client-based digital technology projects and start-up initiatives. His teaching and engagement with organizational leaders reflect the same principle that guides his research: successful transformation depends not simply on adopting better technology, but on building organizations that can learn, adapt, and act responsibly.

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3339 Carl H. Lindner College of Business
Phone: 513-556-7199
donggil.ko@uc.edu