12 AI Hacks for Innovation – Part 2: Brainstorming & Ideation

Let's continue with the AI hacks for innovation. This time with one thing AI is already quite good at, supporting brainstorming, and another thing it is absolutely incapable of, establishing a point of view.

If you missed the first part with three hacks for the exploration phase, you can click here to go back to it.

Defining a unique point of?view

The exploration phase provides a lot of material and insights. To move forward effectively, a creative step is required: narrowing down the insights to a single, truly pivotal insight, your unique point of view, upon which you can build your innovation.

Caveat: The difference between summarizing and focusing matters. ChatGPT and other systems are excellent at summarizing. The result is a text with reduced complexity and a few key messages. The algorithm also reduces the level of insight. Focusing, on the other hand, is an active, creative way to increase insight by emphasizing what really matters, or as Gregory Bateson once stated, to find the difference that makes a difference. Yet, I haven't seen an AI system that can do that. If there is one, I would be happy to read it in your commentary. That's why there is no decent AI hack.

Ideation and Brainstorming

Once your point of view is clearly defined, you have a guiding star for your innovation. Now you can begin the process that almost everyone associates with innovation: look for as many ideas as possible on how to solve the problem from your unique perspective. This is usually done through various brainstorming methods. And now AI can come back into play.

Hack 4: Let AI generate lists

Generative systems like Large Language Models can produce output in different formats. Listicles are one of them. You can use them as a quick way to brainstorm digitally. They can't replace human creativity, but they can add to it. Let's try an example, the problem of insufficient power supply. I used copy.ai for this case, which makes it easy to create listicles.

This is how I started the process:

The first output actually creates a list of ten entries. But the results are not very inspiring.

Since the system generates multiple text suggestions for a task, there is another variation. It does not consist of ten elements, but it is closer to the challenge.

Unfortunately, the result is still a bit vague. But the system does not give up, and the next list actually gives a few concrete ideas.

The results aren't mind-blowing, but they can stimulate further thinking. Exuberant creativity is not something you can expect from AI. I will explain why this is so and what the consequences are in one of my next posts. Stay tuned!

Caveat: It is actually self-explanatory. Idea generation should not be left exclusively to AI. The systems can recombine known facts and ideas, but a true eureka breakthrough that brings something completely new into the world remains unattainable.

This series will provide 8 more valuable hacks. The next article will cover how AI can support prototyping. Stay tuned!

Disclaimer: This article was NOT written by or with the help of AI, besides the header image which was created by DALL-E as an example. Furthermore, I would like to clarify that I have no business or financial relationship with any of the companies mentioned in this text. I also do not receive any form of compensation for mentioning them or writing about them.