Data-Driven Invention receives industry boost from global innovation leaders

As artificial intelligence removes the serendipity and risk from invention, the way companies create products and services is changing – if commercial interest in last week’s Data-driven Invention Forum is anything to go by. At the event, IP and innovation leaders from European, North American and Japanese multinationals contributed to the advancement of a process that is making invention more diverse, expedient and agile.

The company behind this new approach is Iprova, the Anglo-Swiss scale-up that pioneered the use of artificial intelligence to augment human creativity in invention. Iprova applies ML and NLP techniques to vast amounts of data, and identifies inventive signals in ways which would not be feasible for human researchers alone. Iprova’s current and prospective customers participated in the event to explore how this approach could benefit their own businesses.

The summit saw AI and innovation thought leaders talk about the value of this disruptive approach to invention in the wider context of innovations.

• IMD Professor of Innovation Management, Bill Fischer, used the example of the 20th manufacturing revolution to demonstrate the value of an ‘outside-in approach’ – acting on external trends to increase the strategic nature of invention
• Technology entrepreneur Sir Hossein Yassaie discussed the relevance of technological and societal trends in creating fundamental patents as a base from which to innovate
• OpenAI’s Christine Payne, inventor of MuseNet, demonstrated how AI techniques can be used in creative endeavours – with clear parallels to the invention process

There was also an interactive element to proceedings, as the CIPOs, CTOs and innovation leader attendees were invited to take part in ‘The Invention Journey’, guided by Iprova Invention Developers. This experience offered a hands-on insight into how Iprova’s own inventors create valuable inventions on behalf of its customers. The commercial benefits of data-driven invention were also discussed at length by a panel moderated by Ruud Peters, formerly CIPO and EVP of Philips, with speakers representing FMCG, healthcare and consumer electronics multinationals.

Iprova CEO Julian Nolan commented, “AI is impacting business in ways we never imagined before. Every day, Iprova uses its data-driven approach to invent faster and more disruptively than has been previously possible. This results in foundational inventions around key points of  convergence which are additive and complementary to those our customers’ create through their own development processes”.

As corporations worldwide seek ways to optimise the value of their internal IP programmes and focus on developing products and services that deliver greater commercial value, this event was a great showcase for the power of data-driven invention. Insights and connections made at the event look set to inspire organisations across industry to adopt this approach to their own development efforts.