# Zikun Ye

> Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington. My research builds and deploys artificial intelligence.

## About

I am an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington.

My research builds and deploys artificial intelligence. My work spans three threads:

- **LLM-augmented market research** — Augmenting market research with LLMs to do more with less human data, through meta learning, alignment, rectification, and adaptive sampling.
- **Building agentic AI** — Designing AI agent systems for business applications, with attention to orchestration, inference efficiency, and real-world deployment.
- **Data-driven algorithm design** — Combining causal machine learning, optimization, and large-scale field experiments to tackle operations and marketing problems, with deployments at online advertising platforms and marketplaces.

I earned my Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2023, and my Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Engineering with Zhiyuan honors from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2018.

## Journal Publications

- **Joint Assortment Optimization and Discrete Marketing Mix Allocation**. Shuai Li, Zikun Ye, Xin Chen, Weijun Xie. *Manufacturing & Service Operations Management*, 2026. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/msom.2024.1406
- **Deep-Learning-Based Causal Inference for Large-Scale Combinatorial Experiments: Theory and Empirical Evidence**. Zikun Ye, Zhiqi Zhang, Dennis Zhang, Heng Zhang, Renyu Zhang. *Management Science*, 2025. First Prize, INFORMS Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper Award, 2023. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/mnsc.2024.04625
- **LOLA: LLM-Assisted Online Learning Algorithm for Content Experiments**. Zikun Ye, Hema Yoganarasimhan, Yufeng Zheng. *Marketing Science*, 2025. Code: https://github.com/DDDOH/LLM_News. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.2024.0990
- **Efficient Algorithms for a Class of Stochastic Hidden Convex Optimization and Its Applications in Network Revenue Management**. Xin Chen, Niao He, Yifan Hu, Zikun Ye (alphabetical authorship). *Operations Research*, 2024. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/opre.2022.0216
- **Cold Start to Improve Market Thickness on Online Advertising Platforms: Data-Driven Algorithms and Field Experiments**. Zikun Ye, Dennis Zhang, Heng Zhang, Renyu Zhang, Xin Chen. *Management Science*, 2023. Finalist, INFORMS RMP Section Jeff McGill Best Student Paper, 2020. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4550

## Working Papers

- **Fair Document Valuation in LLM Summaries via Shapley Values**. Zikun Ye, Hema Yoganarasimhan. Minor revision at *Management Science*. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23842
- **Efficient Inference Using Large Language Models with Limited Human Data: Fine-Tuning then Rectification**. Lei Wang, Zikun Ye, Jinglong Zhao (alphabetical authorship). Under review. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5763184
- **Allocating Human Oversight in AI-Enabled Analytics**. Zikun Ye, Jiameng Lyu, Rui Tao. Under review. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6561778
- **Rectification Difficulty and Optimal Sample Allocation in LLM-Augmented Surveys**. Zikun Ye, Hema Yoganarasimhan. Under review. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.17267

## Teaching

University of Washington, Foster School of Business:

- **MKTG 565 / MKTG 490: Building Business Applications of LLMs and Generative Models** — every spring quarter, starting Spring 2026. MBA and undergraduate sections. Syllabus: https://zikunye.com/mktg565/
- **BUS AN 514: Analytics for Marketing Decisions** — Winter 2026, MSBA
- **MKTG 564 / MKTG 464: Analytics for Marketing Decisions** — Spring 2024, 2025, MBA and undergraduate
- **BUS AN 599: Business Analytics Practicum** — Spring 2024, 2025, 2026

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign:

- IE 310: Deterministic Models in Optimization (Fall 2022, undergraduate). Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Students.

## Academic Services

- Editorial Review Board: *Marketing Science*
- Referee: *Management Science*, *Operations Research*, *Journal of Marketing Research*, *Manufacturing & Service Operations Management*, *Production and Operations Management*
- Conference Program Committee: EC, WWW, NeurIPS
- Session Chair: INFORMS Annual Meeting 2022, 2023, 2025; ISMS 2025

## Pages

- Homepage: https://zikunye.com/
- Research: https://zikunye.com/research/
- Teaching: https://zikunye.com/teaching/
- MKTG 565 Syllabus: https://zikunye.com/mktg565/
- CV (PDF): https://zikunye.com/files/CV_zikunye.pdf

## Contact

- Email: zikunye at uw dot edu
- Office: Paccar Hall 465, Foster School of Business, University of Washington