The Role of Imagination
Of course, when bringing up the role of AI in both the insights and innovation communities, there is both concern and optimism on the impact it will have. Both industries are leveraging this tool and are searching out just what the appropriate use cases and studies show. To be sure, an integration of both AI tools and human intelligence/human supervision is forecasted to fuel creativity in the future for both insights and innovation.
Still, the influence that AI is having could also fuel debate and questions about what innovation needs to thrive.
“The one fear I have about innovation with AI is that it is becoming a little commoditized in a sense, until our machines do true reasoning. I don’t personally believe we are at human reasoning quite yet,” says Arvind Balasundaram, Executive Director, Commercial Insights & Analytics for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
He adds, “I do worry that AI will just kind of make things repetitive in certain ways. I admire the human ability to do thought experimentation. A lot of our innovation over history has been because we have the ability to get out of a trained kind of structure, a perceived type of structure, and imagine something different. The role of imagination is, I think, crucial in innovation.”
For both the insights and innovation professions, Balasundaram sees the opportunity to provide deep insights—human insights that have true discernment.
“As I like to say, it’s important not just to look at things, but to actually have the ability to see something in them,” says Balasundaram. “That is what creates innovation. If you’re able to see something differently than somebody else who’s looking at the same object, whether it’s art, whether it’s science, whatever it is, that is the scene of innovation. Human behavior works the same way. My fear is that the role of imagination, which I see as a very human enterprise, might get commoditized, and that would worry me a little bit. That’s the one thing I would say keeps me up at night sometimes.”
The AI Advantage on Innovation Strategy
Still, many proponents of AI point to the many advantages of its use in innovation endeavors. For some companies it has had a remarkable, transformative effect on innovation strategy down the line, from accelerating research to enhancing decision-making.
“AI has transformed innovation strategy,” says Gail Martino, formerly Senior Manager, Unilever. Martino is currently VP Partnerships, 387Labs.
“AI enables rapid analysis of vast datasets, expediting the discovery of new materials and product formulations,” observes Martino. “Data-driven insights allow for more informed decisions, optimizing product development and marketing strategies. This shift reflects a broader organizational mindset that embraces technology to meet evolving consumer expectations.”
While Martino is bullish on AI’s uses in insights and innovation, it’s not to say there aren’t other concerns for corporate enterprises as they battle for competitive growth. For example, she points to the ever-growing need for balancing cost savings and efficiency.
“With rising operational costs, companies are focused on balancing innovation with efficiency and cost control. As the market becomes increasingly saturated, companies must continuously innovate to differentiate themselves and their brand offerings,” says Martino.
Be the (Innovation) Recipe Maker
The innovation community has looked at the strategy lens from both a human-inspired imagination perspective and from the tech viewpoint of leveraging AI tools to gain a competitive edge. But just how can an innovator get ahead of the pack? What is something that they can do to give themselves an advantage? The answers can be complex depending on who you ask.
“Where do you think the pack is?” asks Mohan Nair, CEO, Emerge Inc., who points to the community experimenting with AI, and trying to do more interdisciplinary collaboration, as two key trends. But earning a right to be at the executive table is another game entirely.
“Collaboration is great as long as it doesn’t mean subjugation,” asserts Nair. “Operating leaders love to have innovators follow them and help them. But that’s a way of just chaining you to the status quo. Earning the right to be at the table, to truly collaborate, is not something you just go and ask for. It’s something you have to have proven. If you haven’t proven that and you’ve been given this job, you really must think about what you’re going to do here because you’ve just been given a job to follow the operating leaders while you’re being told to lead them.”
Nair continues, “But I’m not talking about structure. I’m talking about the structure of your own personal capacity and looking at how you can be better. For example, I have never seen a great chef blame the ingredients for failure. Maybe they just had a bad day and didn’t get the meal right. They are the recipe makers. I think great innovators, and if you aspire to be one, you really must become recipe makers. You must know how to take the ingredients of the organization and create the ultimate output that no one has ever seen. If you don’t do that and you don’t aspire for that, then you’re just using innovation as a transition job for the next operating job you want. The minute you are sold on that, you have given up the responsibility of innovating.”
That’s not to say that collaboration is a negative, cautions Nair. “People want to say that innovators should collaborate. I think you should collaborate. You should participate. You should be a great corporate citizen. But you’re being assigned the job of challenging the status quo in the future, not today. You’re challenging the future of the status quo. And you’re saying the arrow bends somewhere, that you are the tip of that arrow, and you must make that work for you.”
“That responsibility is something I take very sacred as an innovator,” says Nair.
Video courtesy of EY Global
