“Generative AI affects virtually every aspect of innovation and new product development. And we’re just at the beginning”, stated Dr. Vera Blazevic, when she took students on an engaging journey through the rapidly evolving world of generative AI. Her advice: “Embrace generative AI, but be aware of its limitations and let it inspire you to innovate. AI will not replace humans. Humans using AI will replace those that aren’t!”

Blazevic’s session ‘The impact of generative AI on innovation management’ is part of the Digital Strategy week on campus in Maastricht, part of MaastrichtMBA’s Digital Business elective. Vera Blazevic is an alumnus of Maastricht University, where she also did her PhD. Currently she is working as Associate Professor of Digital Marketing & Innovation at Radboud University Nijmegen and Visiting Professor at RWTH Aachen in the Institute of Technology and Innovation Management. She is an expert on the impact of generative AI on the management of various innovation tasks. Her research has been published in many leading journals and was recognised with several awards, most recently the AACSB Influential Leader Award, the Christer Karlsson Award from the Innovation & Product Development Management Conference, the Frontiers in Services Award for bold, transdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research and the Albert L. Page Award for Outstanding Professional Contribution at the Journal of Product Innovation Management.

What is generative AI?

Before digging in to generative AI’s value for innovation management, Blazevic explains what generative AI is. Generative AI refers to a class of artificial intelligence systems designed to generate new content—such as text, images or videos—by learning patterns from existing data. One of the most well-known examples is OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Other examples include tools like DALL·E (image generation) and Runway (video generation).

Generative AI has been adopted in a breath-taking pace because the tools are incredibly user-friendly, interaction takes place through natural language and there is no need for extensive training. “We’re just at the beginning, development speed is incredible and quality is improving fast”, Blazevic argues. However, while powerful and innovative, generative AI also brings about several challenges and problems such as bias in bias out, the lack of transparency (black box), negative environmental impact, the risk of producing convincing fake content as well as intellectual property and copyright issues. Not to mention many ethical considerations, such as the potential impact of AI on employment, managing the ethical use of personal data in AI systems, the need to protect individual privacy and algorithmic accountability.

Generative AI and innovation management

Generative AI can play a pivotal role in mainly the frontend of the innovation process, Blazevic explains. By generating new ideas and solutions based on existing data, it accelerates and uncovers novel approaches and ideas that human teams might overlook. In a group exercise students experienced the power of generative AI. First, they brainstormed about the question ‘how to improve sustainability in the fashion industry’. After the traditional brainstorm they consulted ChatGTP and then compared the results. Conclusion: AI give a kickstart, helped to structure and fill gaps and came up with more out-of-the-box ideas. However, some felt that old fashioned brainstorming was more fun.

According to Blazevic generative AI allows teams to focus more on refining and executing ideas rather than generating them from scratch, thus enhancing creativity and efficiency, pushing the boundaries of innovation. She convincingly demonstrates this with the AI-augmented Double Diamond Framework; a combination of the well-established design thinking Double Diamond framework and the power of artificial intelligence. The AI-augmented Double Diamond model enhances the design process by making it faster, more data-driven, and more adaptable. It helps teams to generate twice as much ideas, prioritise better, iterate quicker, and deliver more effective solutions, ultimately increasing the chances of successful innovation.

Valuable insights

Benjamin Sleiman, Area Manager at CPM Europe, is enthusiastic about Blazevic’s session. “Vera presented a great overview of generative AI in general and its opportunities for innovation management in particular. AI will be – or already is – a big part of our professional lives and therefor it’s key to understand its opportunities and challenges.  It already helps me to work more efficient. It is also a great tool to stimulate creativity and it allows you to build further on the AI-generated ideas.”

This article displays the student insights and experiences of the Digital Strategy module of the Digital Business elective. The MaastrichtMBA programme has an executive modular part-time format and offers two tracks: On-Campus MBA and Online MBA. The programme has a Triple Crown accreditation and is aimed for professionals with at least 5 years of working experience.