Dr Frano Barbic

Qualifications:

PhD, Licentiate (MBA), MSc, PgCAP

Position:

Senior Lecturer in Strategic and Operations Management

Department:

Bristol Business School

Telephone:

+441179656261

Email:

Frano.Barbic@uwe.ac.uk

Social media:

About me

I am a Senior Lecturer in Strategic and Operations Management at UWE Bristol Business School and Programme Leader for the MSc Business Management and Digital Transformation.

My work focuses on how organisations build the strategy, capabilities and governance needed to adopt artificial intelligence responsibly and convert technological potential into practical value.

I work at the intersection of organisational AI adoption, digital transformation, business ecosystems and workforce development. My applied work with businesses examines the full adoption journey: identifying high-value use cases, assessing organisational readiness, redesigning workflows, developing and testing AI-enabled solutions, planning implementation, and evaluating outcomes. At UWE, this includes leading and contributing to AI Bootcamps, AI Adoption Sprints and knowledge-exchange activity with SMEs in the West of England. I am particularly interested in AI agents and agentic workflows, responsible implementation, capability building, and the organisational conditions that allow AI initiatives to scale beyond isolated experiments.

A second strand of my work explores how AI is reshaping higher education, assessment and graduate capabilities. This work connects assessment design with critical thinking, digital competence, employability and the changing relationship between universities and work. I have led iterative assessment redesign focused on transparent and meaningful human-AI co-creation, contribute to the university's governance group "AI in Teaching, Learning and Assessment", and support interdisciplinary student capability building through AI Hackathons and voluntary training of AI Enthusiasts (40+ students from Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, & Business). 

My academic background combines management and engineering. I hold a PhD in Industrial Management (Thesis: "Governance dynamics in multi-partner alliances: Toward an Integrated Framework"), a Postmaster qualification (eq. Licentiate) in Business Economics specialising in Strategy and Project Management, an MSc in Electrical Engineering specialising in Telecommunications, and a Postgraduate qualification in Academic Practice. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Certified Management & Business Educator (CMBE), a two-time Erasmus Mundus Fellow, and a recipient of several Best Paper Awards from the leading management associations.

I welcome collaboration with academics, businesses, policymakers and professional bodies on research and knowledge-transfer projects, and developing joint publications related to organisational AI adoption, digital transformation, responsible AI, workforce readiness and AI-enabled education. 

I am also interested in doctoral supervision, conference and symposium collaboration, opportunities to deliver keynote talks, and contributing to expert panels.

Area of expertise

Organisational AI adoption and implementation:

AI strategy; organisational readiness; use-case discovery and prioritisation; workflow redesign; AI agents and agentic workflows; implementation governance; adoption measurement; scaling from pilot to organisational practice.

AI-enabled digital transformation:

Digital capabilities; digital strategy; business-model innovation; platform strategy; business ecosystems; open innovation; inter-organisational collaboration.

Responsible AI and workforce transformation:

AI governance; responsible adoption; human oversight; leadership capability; upskilling and reskilling; employability; organisational and societal implications of AI.

AI in Higher Education:

Human-AI co-creation; assessment redesign; academic integrity; critical thinking; digital competence; AI-enabled learning; Education 4.0; learning platforms and simulations.

Regional innovation and knowledge exchange:

SME adoption; university-business collaboration; capability-building programmes; AI ecosystems; applied research; implementation toolkits and practitioner engagement.

Doctoral Supervision Interests

Organisational readiness and capability building for responsible AI adoption

AI implementation journeys, adoption barriers and scaling from pilots to embedded practice

AI agents, agentic workflows and the redesign of organisational work

AI-enabled business models, platforms and digital ecosystems

AI strategy, governance, responsible AI and human oversight

Workforce transformation, upskilling, reskilling and employability in the age of AI

Human-AI co-creation, assessment redesign and critical thinking in higher education

Regional AI ecosystems, SME transformation and university-business collaboration

Collaboration Invitation

I am open to interdisciplinary and international collaboration in organisational AI adoption, digital transformation and AI-enabled education. I particularly welcome enquiries concerning research partnerships, funded projects, longitudinal studies of AI implementation, practitioner-facing toolkits, doctoral supervision, knowledge-exchange programmes, conference and symposium contributions, opportunities to deliver keynote talks and contribute to expert panels.

Publications

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