Smart Innovation - Artificial Intelligence in Innovation Management

Digital transformation influences private and business lives in an impressive manner. Existing processes must be adapted to the new conditions and new technologies need to be implemented. In this thesis, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on innovation management in Switzerland is examined. In the first step, the literature research, the research field of Smart Innovation is elaborated, with a focus on challenges and potentials that can emerge when AI is implemented. In the second step, these factors are further explored in the form of semi-structured interviews with experts, with the aim of identifying factors in practice that have an impact. The main challenges are the determination of an AI strategy, budget, lack of business integration, data governance handling, insufficient IT infrastructure, knowledge gaps, and missing mindset. The area of potentials covers ideation through trend scouting, enablement of product design, target-oriented market analysis and processing, and process optimization. The identification of these categories allows for answering the following research question: What challenges and obstacles occur when implementing AI in existing processes of innovation management in Switzerland, and what potentials does AI offer?. Finally, a framework for successfully establishing AI in a company is developed.