Managing innovation in the era of AI

Technology in Society. 2023. Vol. 73. Article 102254.

Tekic Z., Füller J.

This paper conceptualizes how artificial intelligence (AI) may impact the way companies innovate and manage their innovation process. A research framework we use in investigation builds upon three pillars – data, new tech, and talent. Based on it, we map and discuss changes for organizations applying AI in innovation management. We conceptualize innovation management in the era of AI as a data-driven process in which AI significantly affects all dimensions of the innovation process and its management. Further, our framework suggests that the need for data, technology, and talents will lead to more open and collaborative innovation approaches, novel strategies for innovation protection, and the emergence of new roles in innovation teams. Using AI for innovation management also creates challenges like ethical data usage, navigation through diversity emerging from humans collaborating with artificial intelligence, and escaping from the incremental innovation trap. We summarize our main conclusions as research propositions and outline their practical implications.

Keywords: innovation, innovation management, data, AI, AI-based innovation management