Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Innovation Practices, 2024: Key Insights and Trends

Many of you are likely familiar with Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies and the Magic Quadrants for industry leaders, which they publish annually. However, a lesser-known but equally valuable piece of research Gartner conducts focuses on innovation practices. In my latest article, I explore the recently released Innovation Practices Hype Cycle for 2024, shedding light on the trends shaping the future of innovation management.

This article marks the beginning of a 10-part series where I’ll be diving into the research and trends highlighted in Gartner's report, which forms the foundation of the Innovation Practices Hype Cycle. Stay tuned as I explore the key insights shaping the future of innovation over the next few articles!

Understanding the Hype Cycle Graph

The Hype Cycle graph is divided into five key phases that illustrate the journey of new practices from initial visibility to maturity:

1. Innovation Trigger: This phase represents the emergence of new ideas and technologies. At this stage, there is high interest, but few working solutions.
2. Peak of Inflated Expectations: Technologies and practices in this phase gain a lot of attention, often with inflated expectations, but they may not yet deliver tangible results.
3. Trough of Disillusionment: As initial hype fades, challenges and limitations become clear. Many practices fail to meet expectations, leading to a period of skepticism.
4. Slope of Enlightenment: In this phase, the true value of the practice becomes evident, and more organizations begin to understand its potential for solving real-world problems.
5. Plateau of Productivity: Practices reach maturity, where adoption becomes mainstream, and their benefits are widely recognized.

Key Highlights of the 2024 Research

1. AI-Driven Innovation on the Rise

• Generative AI for Innovation is rapidly moving through the Hype Cycle, positioned on the Peak of Inflated Expectations. Organizations are leveraging generative AI to enhance creativity, streamline idea generation, and speed up product development cycles.
• AI-Augmented Design Thinking is another highlight, helping companies enhance traditional design thinking with AI-powered insights to accelerate problem-solving and decision-making.
• Emerging with Potential : Included some that are just emerging, but offer the potential for significant improvements to the innovation process, such as the minimum viable innovation system.

2. Declining Practices Several innovation practices that appeared in last year’s Hype Cycle have been removed in 2024 due to various reasons, either because they have reached maturity or there has been a decline in client interest:

• Corporate Incubators: Removed due to a lack of recurring interest from clients in this practice.
• Idea Challenges: This practice has been deemed fully mature and therefore removed from the cycle.
• Innovation Intellectual Property Management: Removed as we are no longer seeing consistent client interest in this area.
• Innovation Training: Now considered fully mature and no longer requires tracking on the Hype Cycle.
• Innovation Workshops: Like innovation training, this practice is now seen as fully mature and has been removed.
• Microinnovations: The term is no longer widely used, leading to its removal from the Hype Cycle.
• Scenario Planning: While still relevant, scenario planning has evolved beyond innovation and is being used more in areas such as futurism, strategy formulation, and product visioning. As a result, it is no longer positioned as an innovation practice.

The Hype Cycle for Innovation Practices, 2024 reflects a shift towards AI-driven tools, automation, and sustainability-focused innovation strategies. As these practices evolve through the Hype Cycle, organizations can leverage them to stay competitive in a rapidly changing business landscape.

By understanding where each innovation practice stands, companies can make informed decisions about which trends to adopt and when to invest in new technologies, ultimately driving growth and staying ahead in their industries.