To be innovative is one of the most highly prized qualities in modern business. For any organisation described as innovative, one would immediately see that business as progressive, challenging, risk-taking, focused on digital transformation, modern and successful.
However, the truth isn’t quite as simple as that. While most businesses might claim to be innovative, for many it is merely smoke and mirrors, a PR exercise that positions that company as innovative without really delivering. Organisations that are serious about being innovative know that it involves a different culture and a different mindset to be successful. And for innovation to be future-proof and sustainable, it is also going to increasingly involve artificial intelligence (AI).
Around a decade ago, with the emergence of agile and digitally-focused start-ups, it became clear that businesses needed to innovate more than ever, in order to be successful and maintain their market position. Traditional businesses were coming under threat from new market entrants, start-ups that were structured in a way that put innovation and fresh thinking at the heart of their operations.
This led to the accelerated emergence of a technology to capture and manage innovation, the idea management platform. The concept had already existed in different forms, but the increased need for innovation in more traditional businesses saw idea management platforms become more mainstream, offering the ability to capture, refine and realise ideas, and allowing discussion and engagement across multiple communities – internal or external, employees or management, national or international.
The last five years has seen this technology evolve even further, as innovation becomes even more highly valued, with the latest idea management platforms making tangible use of AI to power innovation programmes.
While AI has existed as a concept since the mid-’60s, for a long period it seemed as though it was never quite going to push through to the business and technology mainstream. The last few years however, have seen increasing adoption of AI and it is starting to fulfil its undoubted potential and have a real impact on many businesses.
One area where AI has undoubtedly made a difference is in innovation and idea management, adding machine learning capabilities to ensure corporate memories for ideas are much longer, leading to truly sustainable and on-going innovation.
