How to Cultivate the Human-AI Sweet Spot for Innovation

How can leaders put AI to work without stifling human creativity and innovation? 

Berkeley Haas organizational culture experts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava are back for season 3 of The Culture Kit! The season kicks off with Hila Lifshitz, a Professor of Management at Warwick Business School and head of The Artificial Intelligence Innovation Network. She’s also a visiting faculty member at Harvard University’s Lab for Innovation Science (LISH). 

Jenny, Sameer, and Hila dive into her pioneering research on open innovation at NASA, revealing how they transitioned to an open innovation model and the significant cultural shift it required. They also discuss new research with fashion company H&M that revealed a common pitfall when implementing AI, and how to avoid it. 

3 main takeaways from Jenny & Sameer’s interview with Hila Lifshitz

1. Think like a scientist and use an experimental mindset rather than an optimization mindset. Managers should understand that we’re still in the early days of AI and be flexible to how these tools might fit into their organizations.
2. Keep pushing on the expertise of your people: Ask them what they are good at, what they want to be good at, and how the organization can set them up for success.
3. Allocate resources for this expertise: How can the organization lean on these areas of expertise to push the boundaries of innovation even further—while using AI for lower-level tasks?

Show Links

• Hila Lifshitz on Linkedin
• Dismantling Knowledge Boundaries at NASA: The Critical Role of Professional Identity in Open Innovation, by Hila Lifshitz, Administrative Science Quarterly
• Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality, by Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Saran Rajendran, Edward McFowland III, Lisa Krayer, Ethan Mollick, François Candelon, Hila Lifshitz, Karim R. Lakhani, and Katherine C. Kellogg.
• More research by Hila LIfshitz
• The Artificial Intelligence Innovation Network | Warwick Business School
• Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard

View Transcript for "How to Cultivate the Human-AI Sweetspot"

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!” 

Learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at www.haas.org/culture-kit.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. It is produced by University FM.*