Open Innovation in the Age of AI paper by Marcus Holgersson, Linus Dahlander, Henry Chesbrough, and Marcel L. A. M. Bogers is a great summary of how artificial intelligence can impact open innovation. I will add two important points to the paper:
Open innovation is a relationship
In different cultures open innovation is understood differently. For example, Wikipedia page for open innovation in English and French are different – English is very technical, while French uses words like principles, ethics, and solidarity. In some industries and cultures open innovation is understood as a new way to relate to clients, customers, end-users. It is an ultimate human-to-human collaborative relationship. Process and participants are more important than the resulting innovation. While AI can liberate open innovation from boring repetitive tasks, I would like that collaborative relationship of open innovation – openness – is more emphasized. If the openness part is not protected, open innovation will be diminished.
Open innovation for artificial intelligence
Also, an important aspect of open innovation and AI is not how AI changes open innovation, but how open innovation changes AI. AI is a form of centralization – it is an expensive and complex technology which is extremely hard to edit by users. While it will solve many problems, it also requires a counterpart – something that destresses its extreme centralization, a more open approach. If every company in the world uses the same AI then we will reduce innovation and uniqueness. Also, AI greatly depends on third party data, which is a form of open innovation, and AI makers will not always be able to simply buy it. AI will need to adopt open innovation in order to become a truly liberating and universal technology.
If we forget that open innovation is not only about innovation but also about being open, we are limiting its capacity. If we assume AI is something that changes us, instead of something that we change, again we are limiting its capacity. Both open innovation and AI are amazing tools with which we can build our future, but they need to be used at full capacity – open innovation and AI must be truly open.
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