The Adoption of AI in New Product Development

Abstract

Overview Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming all aspects of business, including new product development (NPD). Early adopters of AI for NPD are reaping substantial rewards, witnessing remarkable reductions in development timelines, and experiencing a more rapid pace of innovation. But what about the more typical firm? This article presents the preliminary results of a study of US and Central European companies, shedding light on the current state of AI implementation across 13 key AI applications in NPD. We found that companies studied have not yet fully embraced AI across any of these applications; 75 percent have failed to adopt AI for a single application; and “intention to adopt” for all 13 applications is quite weak. European firms are only marginally ahead of US firms. We conclude with important messages for management and offer six recommendations firms can use in their efforts to integrate AI into NPD. A note of caution: Companies will need to act quickly in their AI adoption efforts; otherwise, they risk losing out.

Keywords::

• Artificial Intelligence
• New Product Development
• Product Development
• Product Innovation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert G. Cooper

Robert G. Cooper is ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow at Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business Administration, Professor Emeritus at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business (Canada), and a Crawford Fellow of the Product Development and Management Association. He has published 11 books and more than 150 articles on the management of new products. He has won the Innovation Research Interchange’s prestigious Maurice Holland Award three times. Cooper holds and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a PhD in business and an MBA from Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. [email protected]

Alexander M. Brem

Alexander M. Brem is director of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI), and Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurship in Technology and Digitization, endowed by the Mercedes-Benz Foundation in the Stifterverband, University of Stuttgart, Germany. He is also Honorary Professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Southern Denmark. He is editor of the IEEE Engineering Management Review, and a senior member of IEEE. He received his MBA and PhD in business administration from the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany, in 2004 and 2007, respectively. His research interests include technological innovation and entrepreneurship, and he is a noted scholar in the field of AI and NPD. [email protected]