Forget Brainstorming – Use Technology: A Case for Agile, AI-Enabled Entrepreneurship Education

Traditional entrepreneurship education has long emphasized ideation, theoretical instruction, and staged business planning. Yet, in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and rapid technological development, such approaches often fall short of preparing students for real-world entrepreneurial dynamics. This paper presents a case study of the BuildUP program at the University of Potsdam (Germany), a ten-week Master-level course that deliberately abandons brainstorming and prolonged ideation in favor of anchoring entrepreneurship education in three key design principles: (1) starting from existing university technologies rather than abstract ideas, (2) embedding AI tools to lower barriers to execution, and (3) structuring the course in short, sprint-based cycles with agile adaptation by faculty. Data was drawn from observation, student logbooks, end-of-program feedback, and lecturer reflections. Findings reveal that students progressed from initial exposure to patents to validated prototypes and symbolic revenue attempts within weeks—outcomes rarely achieved in conventional courses. Five central insights emerged: speed and iteration as primary learning drivers, technology anchors as accelerators of focus, AI as an execution enabler, authentic market feedback as a superior learning tool, and agile teaching as a co-learning process. The study contributes to the growing literature on practice-first, technology-integrated entrepreneurship education, offering a model that can be adapted in diverse higher education contexts.

Entrepreneurship education, artificial intelligence, sprint-based learning, technology transfer, agile teaching

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