This collaboration marks a decisive step in ESCP’s ongoing commitment to integrating artificial intelligence into education, research, and operations. Building on pioneering initiatives – including the collaboration with OpenAI for ChatGPT Edu access, the training of 1,000 “AI Champions” among students, faculty, and staff, and the integration of AI into programmes and operations – ESCP is setting a new benchmark for business education.
Through this partnership, the entire ESCP community (11,000+ students and 1,000+ professors and staff) will gain free access to Hugging Face’s state-of-the-art models and entire platform, creating hands-on opportunities in the classroom, in research, and in entrepreneurial ventures. The collaboration also extends to Hugging Face’s “Learn” hub, reinforcing AI literacy across ESCP’s six European campuses.
“By partnering with Hugging Face, our students, faculty and staff are not only learning about artificial intelligence, they are building with it. This partnership reflects our ‘Bold and United’ strategy, our conviction that AI is not just an augmented tool but a new language for management and innovation,” explains Prof. Léon Laulusa, Executive President and Dean of ESCP Business School. “With this approach, ESCP positions itself as a unique living lab of Generative AI in management education. Our next ambition: to create a sovereign and transformative platform for our community.”
“I started my entrepreneurial journey at ESCP Business School 15 years ago, so I’m beyond excited to be able to give back and foster the next generation of builders here in France and across ESCP’s European campuses,” says Clément Delangue, co-founder & CEO at Hugging Face and ESCP Alumnus (Master in Management, 2012). “AI is transforming education, and it’s great to see ESCP Business School, the oldest business school in the world – created in 1819, completely embracing it. By joining the Hugging Face academia hub, ESCP’s students, professors and staff will not only be able to use AI but take an active part in building AI themselves, thanks to open science and open-source AI, all for free!”
Through the Hugging Face platform, ESCP students will gain unique opportunities to:
● Learn data science in and out of the classroom: Engage with large language models (LLMs), vision and multi-modal AI systems for class projects, applied research, and assignments both in and out of the classroom.
● Showcase & certify their skills: Publish projects on Hugging Face’s global platform, contribute to open-source projects, and strengthen their CVs with visible, verifiable evidence of technical expertise valued by recruiters.
● Accelerate entrepreneurship: Students participating in ESCP’s European startup incubator, the Blue Factory, or leading an entrepreneurial venture will also be able to leverage Hugging Face to rapidly prototype and integrate open-source AI into minimum viable products (MVPs) without high infrastructure or licensing costs.
