Artificial intelligence creates new opportunities for innovations. From excitement to distrust, the innovation potential of AI must be correctly assessed.
Dall-E, Flan-T5, RoBERTa GPT-2 and ChatGPT are demonstrating to many of us how we will work together with computers in the future. With the quality that ChatGPT displays, the topic of artificial intelligence has therefore been catapulted to the top of the trend radars of many innovation teams in a very short time.
Generative AI as a starting point for innovation
The Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer (ChatGPT) project was made publicly available by Open AI in December 2022. The use case shows how artificial intelligence (AI) can support us in the future. ChatGPT answers questions or creates new content, like poems or lines of code. And that is just a fraction of the possibilities that can be realized with AI.
How do you use AI in innovation management?
Innovation departments, in my opinion, therefore have no choice but to look at AI technology. (If, in fact, you haven't had to already.)
If your company doesn't see AI playing a role in an innovation project, my advice would be to start using AI in an innovation team.
I wanted to cross-check my thoughts for possible uses of AI in innovation teams, so I asked ChatGPT: What are the possible applications of artificial intelligence in innovation management?
- Innovation management: ChatGPT can be used to generate new ideas and concepts for products, services, and processes, by analyzing data on industry trends, customer needs, and market dynamics.
- Business development: ChatGPT can be used to identify new business opportunities, by analyzing data on market trends, customer behavior, and competitor activities.
- R&D departments: ChatGPT can be used to assist in the research and development of new products and technologies, by generating hypotheses, analyzing data, and identifying new areas of inquiry.
The answer is a good one. As an expert, I would have added a few things, but it's not bad to start off with.
ChatGPT finds many tasks in innovation management – especially when it comes to analyzing large amounts of data or getting an overview. However, AI will not be able to take over the task of deriving service or product innovations or business models.
Yet as a provider of ideas, AI can, when used correctly, deliver particularly valuable input. I therefore wanted to know from ChatGPT: What are the potential applications for artificial intelligence in the manufacturing industry?
A question that can arise in an internal innovation project, for example.
The answer from ChatGPT:
- In production halls: AI-powered systems can be used for tasks such as predictive maintenance, quality control, and process optimization. For example, using machine learning algorithms to predict when a machine is likely to fail, so maintenance can be scheduled proactively. Also, using computer vision to inspect products and detect defects.
- In products themselves: AI can be integrated into products to provide added functionality and intelligence. For example, using AI-powered sensors to monitor and diagnose issues with equipment or machinery, or to optimize performance.
- In supply chain and logistics: AI can be used to optimize logistics and supply chain operations, such as forecasting demand, optimizing inventory levels, and scheduling production runs.
- In employee training: AI can be used to train employees on new equipment and procedures, by creating interactive simulations and providing personalized feedback.
With this example I want to demonstrate how ChatGPT shows options. These initial, still very superficial, answers can help to get to know search fields better in innovation management, for example, whereby AI tools should not be used as the only source. The weaknesses of the technology are still too obvious.
Examples: artificial intelligence in practice
At the World Economic Forum 2023, the application of AI in various fields will also be a topic. Such examples show that the integration of AI can lead to disruptive innovations. For example, in a discussion, Jim Breyer provides an insight into why he is investing in AI in medicine. Another exciting application is FireAI. Here artificial intelligence is used to predict forest fires.
An article from Trendingtopics looks at the prospects from Google's point of view and sees the search giant facing the "Innovator's Dilemma" with the AI trend. It will be exciting to see how this disruptive technology might replace existing technology and what business models will emerge.
The innovation story of AI has only just begun
In addition to unresolved ethical issues and dangers of discrimination and racism based on training data from AI models, several teething problems with the new technology will still make headlines. That being said, hardly any company that seriously pursues innovation management will be able to avoid dealing with the topic.
Artificial intelligence will not only produce numerous disruptive innovations in the coming years, but also has the potential to fundamentally change the work in innovation management.
About the text produced:
ChatGPT provided inspiration and information for this article. Assessing the results and reflecting on them was still performed by humans.
Current text-based models can be used to create drafts of blog posts. But only drafts! If and when artificial intelligence produces a well-researched quality text remains to be seen. Artificial intelligence is a tool and not a substitute for creativity, independent thinking, and expertise.
