Our recent survey of 150 companies and 300+ solution providers revealed five key lessons on “innovating in the digital age”

1. Digital technologies (such as AI, advanced analytics, self-learning systems and IoT) are expected to partly or even completely transform the way innovation gets done, according to 93% of all surveyed companies
2. The most important technologies can be grouped into three families, depending on what they bring to innovators
   1. those that boost intelligence, for instance about customer needs;
   2. technologies that bring better and faster foresight, e.g. concerning product performance;
   3. digital solutions that improve and accelerate collaboration, communication and learning
3. Almost all participating companies expect to fully digitalize their innovation engine or even their entire company; and that this will go hand in hand with the digitalization of their products, services and business models
4. Important barriers are the shortage of “digital thinkers” and capabilities; and because of this relative ignorance many industrial companies still miss a clear view on concrete business benefits and ultimately a strategy for change
5. There is no such thing as a “best practice” that can simply be followed but successful companies tend to follow a threefold approach:
   1. Design solutions for broad user adoption for established digital solutions;
   2. Run controlled piloting programs for cutting edge digital technology applications;
   3. Monitor and experiment with potentially disruptive ones

This report summarizes a unique global and cross-industry investigation into the why, the what and the how of “innovating in the digital age” 1)