Driving business innovation with Generative AI (GenAI)

Mckinsey & Company defines Innovation as “The systematic practice of developing and marketing breakthrough products and services for adoption by customers.”

However, business innovation requires ideas, resources, and execution strategies. Unfortunately, not every organization has the resources and budgets to train its people in the art of innovation and build systems to apply innovation ideas across every organizational layer.

Thankfully, these companies can tap into GenAI for business innovation - more precisely, to accelerate innovation and drive business results.

Innovation is central to successful businesses. Look around for brands that have changed the way people live or go about their work: Uber, Netflix, Amazon, Google, Shopify, Ola, Alibaba, Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, Facebook—the list goes on and on.

And though these companies operate in different markets, a detailed examination of their histories and current operations will exhibit one key trait: their focus on innovation.

In a McKinsey & Company survey, Over 80 percent of executives surveyed say that innovation is among their top three priorities, yet less than 10 percent report being satisfied with their organizations’ innovation performance.’ Less than 10 percent of executives are happy with how their organizations practice innovation. This is pure dismal!

There could be literally hundreds of reasons why organizations are not performing well in innovation. They could lack adequate resources and funds, be unwilling to build and embrace a new kind of culture, etc.

However, the good news is that you can now embed innovation deeply into your operations by harnessing the massive power of next-generation technology: we are talking about innovation with AI or, more specifically, with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI).

I’m sure you’ve heard about GenAI. If you are a developer, you must use some form of GenAI, such as Copilot, to write and ship code more efficiently and faster to production.

If you are in senior leadership, a CIO, or a CXO, adopting GenAI strategically can open floodgates of opportunities for your business. If this sounds interesting, bear with us until the end of this blog. We promise we won’t disappoint or waste your time. First, let’s wrap our heads around what GenAI is.

What is Generative AI?

Picture an intelligent assistant. He/she can help automate all your routine and mundane tasks, such as writing reports.

You can also ask him/her to brainstorm new product ideas, design solutions, or creative content such as marketing copies, stories, and poems, all tailored to your unique needs. In the context of business, GenAI acts as an intelligent assistant.

Gartner sheds light on what is Generative AI: “Generative AI isn’t just a technology or a business case — it is a key part of a society where people and machines work together.”

Think about it: Generative AI is not just a tech or a business case; it is more than that. In the near future, we will see GenAI playing a bigger and bigger role in the way humans and machines interact and work together.

GenAI creates opportunities for innovation

Innovation can be vague at times. But in the context of business, we can not afford vagueness.

We have to be specific. In business, innovation is the process of generating new ideas and solutions and successfully converting them into products and services that can help companies improve their operations, efficiency, and market position.

It can encompass creativity and technology to propel business growth, improve competitiveness, and drive customer experience.
 

Innovation is a human-centric process. But humans take cues from everything that surrounds them. For example, Sir Isaac Newton was inspired to develop his theory of gravity after seeing an apple fall from a tree in his garden at Woolsthorpe Manor in the late summer of 1666. Similarly, scientists considered building submarines while studying the whales to sail underwater.

Innovation can flow from anywhere. You only need to be attentive to what’s going on around you. GenAI applications and systems offer a vast world of possibilities for innovators and strategists working toward building new products and services for the masses of niche audiences. There’s so much that can be done using these new-age advanced technologies.

Also Read: How GenAI drives decision-making and helps with technical projects

How does GenAI bolster innovation in business?

Accelerating innovation with AI or GenAI is often achieved by automating creative processes and generating actionable insights for informed decision-making.

Modern GenAI tools and technologies, ChatGPT4 and CoPilot are just a few examples that enable business users to generate most forms of content such as text, video, and audio, design prototypes, and even develop code. Though the generated output might require further effort, employing GenAI solutions almost always leads to augmented customer experiences, streamlined product development cycles, and faster innovation.

A strategic implementation of GenAI systems and services can unlock numerous business and people benefits:

• Faster time to market: This is one of the most compelling benefits of adopting or embracing GenAI tools. Once they are systematically integrated into business processes, they can accelerate the entire process of product development and thus can help build a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
  
  As GenAI tools (such as low-code/no-code) can generate code at scale, businesses can develop preliminary code for new software applications without needing extensive development expertise. The same set of tools and platforms can be used to review code and locate and fix bugs in the code to reduce testing efforts.
• Accelerated brainstorming and prototyping: Brainstorming can take a lot of resources. With GenAI solutions, you can accelerate the whole process and get access to ideas that you and your team might not have thought of.
• Cost reduction: Using GenAI can lead to reduced operational costs. By automating repetitive tasks, companies can reallocate resources to more critical areas. This allows to increase efficiency and maintain a competitive edge in the market.

Conclusion

Innovation in business is about generating ideas and action plans that can lead to new or better offerings, whether in manufacturing, Oil and gas, insurance, banking, or other fields.

Innovation does not need GenAI - however, you can explore new dimensions in the field of innovation with the help of advanced technologies such as Generative AI.

We have been connecting, communicating, and brainstorming for decades to understand customer struggles and build solutions to help our customers overcome those challenges. But times have changed.

Customers can not wait years or even months to discover what’s troubling them and launch products and services that can relieve them from those troubles. They have become more demanding and knowledgeable than ever before. If your product or service does not engage them or offer them what they are looking for, they will not hesitate to shift to your competition.