MIT's Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship is navigating the AI revolution with a nuanced approach: while AI tools are reshaping how startups are built, the fundamentals of entrepreneurship remain unchanged. Through its delta v summer accelerator program, the Trust Center encourages students to leverage AI for coding, brainstorming, drafting presentations, and learning about new industries, but emphasizes that talking to customers and validating ideas in the real world remain irreplaceable. The center's generative AI app, Jetpack, guides users through the 24 steps of disciplined entrepreneurship, suggesting customer segments, business models, and product plans — but positions its outputs as first drafts rather than final answers.

The cohort's experiences illustrate both AI's power and its pitfalls. Cognify, an AI-native company founded by MBA candidate Murtaza Jameel, uses AI tools across all processes from ideation to programming, while Mendhai Health co-founder Aanchal Arora cautions that overreliance on AI can undermine customer understanding. Trust Center leaders note that large language models, built on averages, can be less effective for targeting specific demographics — a critical shortcoming for entrepreneurs trying to identify niche markets. Despite the hype around AI agents and automation, founders in the program consistently pointed to the human elements — mentorship, networks, and advisor relationships — as what makes delta v truly valuable.