Why Innovation Challenges Are Your Secret Weapon for AI Implementation

Every conversation about innovation today seems to begin and end with AI. It’s no surprise. Artificial Intelligence is transforming everything: from how we communicate with customers to how we design products, forecast markets, and streamline operations. AI is no longer a distant frontier; it’s the engine of competitive advantage, the currency of modern business.

But as excitement about AI grows, so does the confusion around how to actually implement it. Amidst the scramble to “do something with AI,” many organizations are stuck in a familiar trap: hiring AI consultants, buying tools they don’t fully use, or launching isolated pilot projects that never scale.

Meanwhile, innovation challenges, an incredibly powerful tool to accelerate AI adoption, are often overlooked, dismissed as too complex, or mistaken for superficial ideation campaigns.

Let’s set the record straight.

Why Innovation Challenges May Seem Irrelevant (and Why That’s a Mistake)

Innovation challenges have been around for centuries, from Napoleon’s food preservation prize to today’s $5M quantum computing competitions. And while they've historically been associated with moonshots or scientific discoveries, they’ve quietly evolved into one of the most agile and inclusive methods for sourcing real, implementable solutions, including AI applications, from your own employees, partners, customers, or the global marketplace.

So why are they overlooked?

Because many people still confuse innovation challenges with idea boxes or brainstorming sessions. They believe these challenges are too slow for today’s AI pace. Or worse, they view them as “innovation theater,” more symbolic than strategic.

But here’s the truth: the right innovation challenge doesn’t slow you down. It focuses your organization on a meaningful AI opportunity and accelerates action.

The Hidden Power of Innovation Challenges

An innovation challenge is not a meeting. It’s not a workshop. And it’s definitely not a suggestion box.

It is a structured, time-bound, purpose-driven process designed to source the best solutions to a defined problem with a clear incentive to act.

When applied to AI, innovation challenges help organizations:

• Identify real use cases for AI by crowdsourcing prototypes from those closest to the work, such as your employees, engineers, or customers.
• Test AI solutions quickly and affordably, with clear evaluation criteria and risk-managed pilot phases.
• Align leadership and operational teams on what problems AI should solve and how to measure success.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and data-driven decision-making, critical for AI readiness.
• Avoid tech-for-tech’s-sake investments, by anchoring AI exploration in real business needs.

They are not a detour from AI implementation. They are a launchpad.

Real-World Inspiration: AI Innovation Challenges in Action

Two current challenges illustrate how leading organizations are using innovation challenges to drive AI progress:

Zurich Insurance’s AgenticAI Hyperchallenge

Zurich Insurance is inviting innovators to rethink what responsible, agentic AI looks like in the insurance and risk industry. It’s not just about the technology. It’s about imagining a future where humans and AI collaborate toward resilience and safety. The challenge is designed to accelerate solutions that would otherwise stay stuck in PowerPoint decks.

Bezos Earth Fund's AI for Climate & Nature Grand Challenge

This challenge is pushing the boundaries of how AI can serve our planet. From tracking biodiversity to accelerating decarbonization, the Bezos Earth Fund is leveraging open innovation to identify high-impact AI tools and teams that might not have surfaced through traditional funding routes.

These are just two examples of how AI innovation can move from abstract ambition to measurable progress when it’s treated as a challenge worth solving collaboratively.

Why Now Is the Time to Learn How to Run One

We’re at a tipping point. The tools to experiment with AI are abundant. But the structure to explore them meaningfully is rare. Organizations that know how to run innovation challenges are:

• Sourcing AI ideas from unexpected places.
• Driving adoption faster than top-down directives ever could.
• Building innovation maturity while solving real business problems.

If your organization is exploring AI and struggling to translate that ambition into impact, this is your moment.

Call to Action: Be the Leader Who Activates AI Through Innovation

AI won’t transform your organization. People will.

But only if you give them the platform to do so.

If you're serious about responsible, effective, and inclusive AI implementation, it's time to add a new skill to your leadership toolkit:

Learn how to design and run an innovation challenge.

Learn how to define the right problem, engage the right solvers, and accelerate your AI ambitions, not with theory, but with actionable ideas or prototypes and tested solutions.

👉Join the next cohort of Design Challenges and Activate Innovators like a Pro. Start by registering today, and we’ll start soon.