Innovation Workshops and the Impact of AI

Innovation workshops and collaborative events are catalysts for creative thinking, problem-solving, and opportunity development within organizations. This chapter explores how artificial intelligence is transforming traditional innovation workshops, making them more effective, inclusive, and impactful. It begins by examining classic brainstorming techniques and their evolution into AI-powered brainstorming sessions that generate more diverse ideas and overcome common blockers. The chapter details how AI enhances design sprints by accelerating the research, prototyping, and validation phases and then explores Hackathons as intensive innovation events, explaining how they benefit from AI-assisted ideation, development, and evaluation processes. The chapter also covers orchestration events that coordinate innovation activities across the organization, as well as information-sharing events that disseminate knowledge and expertise. Moreover, it presents the concept of the innovation calendar, a component that strategically sequences innovation events to increase engagement, maximize impact, and minimize the risk of disrupting the business rhythm. The chapter addresses the unique challenges and opportunities of conducting innovation workshops in the era of remote work, concluding with an analysis of how AI-powered innovation events are changing the way companies innovate and why businesses need to redefine the traditional innovation roles, career paths, and talent strategies.