Innovation leaders are at a crossroads. The promise of AI is undeniable, but is your organization truly ready to leverage it?
In our recent LinkedIn live webinar, "Rethinking Innovation," featuring industry experts, posed a powerful question: What if the key to unlocking AI's full potential isn't a new strategy, but lies in empowering the people you already have?
This thought-provoking session revealed a new paradigm for innovation that goes beyond technology and focuses on the human element.
So, how do we balance human creativity with the rapid rise of AI?
That's exactly what Iliriana Kaçaniku (CEO of Open Soul Studio) and Peter Haws (Key Account Manager at innosabi) explored in our recent LinkedIn Live. This discussion wasn't about abstract theories. It was about people, culture, and real business impact.
Here are a few highlights from the conversation.
The Rise of the "Hidden Innovators": Your Most Valuable Innovators Are Unseen
Iliriana opened the discussion with a compelling argument: every organization is full of "hidden innovators." These aren't the people with "innovation" in their job titles, but rather those who identify as problem-solvers, high-performers, or even entrepreneurs. They are closest to the problems and often possess the most valuable insights.
Iliriana shared three powerful case studies to illustrate this point:
- An international moving company CEO who empowered his employees to develop a simple color-coding system that drastically boosted operational efficiency.
- A continuous improvement manager at a wind turbine producer who, by simply listening to employees on the manufacturing floor, led an ideation campaign that reduced unit production time by an astonishing 20%.
- A management consultant who broke down silos within a divided company post-merger, helping to create a new solution that reduced a cumbersome process from three weeks to just a few hours.
In each case, the most impactful ideas came from the people closest to the work, who needed only a little support and a clear pathway to surface their solutions. As Iliriana noted, a powerful pattern emerged: "innovators were already inside the system closest to the problem, needing only a bit of activation, a bit of support from the leader and a clear pathway to surface their solutions."
Where AI Fits In (It's Not About the Tech, It's About the People)
The conversation then turned to the growing challenge of AI adoption. While AI is here to stay, its integration into the enterprise is far from seamless. A Boston Consulting Group survey reveals a stark divide: while 85% of leaders are regular AI users, only 51% of frontline employees are.
Why? Limited training. Patchy access to tools. And leadership that doesn't always create the conditions for confidence.
Iliriana summed it up clearly: "AI fluency isn't about learning to code. It's about knowing what AI is, what it isn't, and how it creates business value."
The webinar discussed this disparity in further details:
- A Training Deficit
Just 36% of frontline employees report being trained on AI skills, and even for those who were, the training was often too short or too shallow. The research showed that employees who receive at least five hours of training are more likely to become regular users.
- Limited Access to Tools
Over a third of employees (37%) say their company doesn't provide them with the right AI tools, leading over half of those employees (54%) to use unauthorized tools and risk data security.
- Lack of Leadership Buy-in
When leadership support is provided, the share of employees who feel positive about using generative AI skyrockets from 15% to 55%.
These findings underscore a critical point: successful AI adoption isn't just about rolling out new tools. It requires fostering what the webinar's experts call "AI fluency" (in other words, the ability to confidently understand, question, and strategically lead with AI).
The Solution: The Innovation Challenge
So, how do you upskill your workforce and activate these hidden innovators at the same time? Here's where the conversation got practical.
The answer, according to the webinar, is to run a structured Innovation Challenge. This method leverages how adults learn best... by doing.
The webinar explained that a challenge is built on four fundamental "Ps":
- Problem: Present a well-defined challenge.
- People: Invite employees from across the organization to participate.
- Process: Provide a clear structure, timeline, and judging criteria.
- Price: Offer an incentive to appeal to both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators.
Additionally, by integrating AI upskilling into this process, you create a "fifth P" of Proficiency.
This provides a safe, hands-on environment for employees to test and learn, directly applying new AI skills to solve a meaningful business problem.
The results can be extraordinary. The webinar shared a case study of Steven Bartlett's company, which saw a remarkable 100% participation rate in a 60-day AI challenge. This effort led to the creation of 48 new AI tools, unlocked over 65,000 hours of productivity, and generated nearly $1.2 million in efficiency gains.
"Innovation challenges solve problems faster, prepare an AI-ready workforce, and create the safe space for experimentation that innovation requires," said Iliriana.
AI as an Amplifier, Not a Replacement
Of course, big challenges mean lots of ideas. Sometimes too many.
Peter, from innosabi, reinforced this message by showcasing how technology can amplify human creativity. He emphasized that AI is not a replacement for innovation teams, but a powerful amplifier. innosabi's tools, for instance, are designed to make the innovation process more efficient by reducing the "manually tedious and repetitive process" of sorting through ideas.
He demonstrated two AI-powered features:
- Submission AI: A practical tool that actively helps employees improve their ideas by offering suggestions and highlighting missing elements, ensuring higher quality submissions from the start.
- Creation Assistant: An AI tool for innovation managers that jumpstarts the process of drafting a new challenge, providing suggestions for titles, descriptions, and visuals.
These tools are not about automating innovation, but about handling the "grunt work" so that humans can focus on the creative and strategic decisions that truly matter. Peter left the audience with a powerful thought: "AI will not take your job, but people that know how to leverage it may."
Discover how innosabi's AI features accelerate innovation.
Want to Empower Your People?
Innovation doesn't come from organizations. It comes from people. AI just helps clear the path.
As Peter put it, "AI is best when it works in tandem with humans (...) the machine takes care of the heavy lifting, the human adds meaning"
The full webinar dives deeper into the specific strategies and tools that can help you activate the innovators in your organization and drive real, measurable impact with AI. It's a must-watch for any leader looking to build an AI-ready workforce.
Watch the full webinar to learn more about:
- How to build an AI-fluent workforce that is confident and engaged.
- The essential elements of a successful innovation challenge.
- In-depth case studies on how companies are using these methods to drive real ROI.
- A live demonstration of how AI tools can amplify your team's efforts.
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