WINNING THE RACE
For Harsh Wardhan, the year ahead is about who is developing AI better while balancing innovation’s short- and long-term goals.
Harsh Wardhan, Innovation Program Lead, Google
In 2024, it’s unavoidable for organizations both big and small to become innovative with what we are seeing in terms of technology even though markets have not settled. Understandably, investors want more and more returns, which would come from short-term execution. But, going forward, I think we are in a race. We are in a race for who is doing AI better. For that, innovation has become even more important. Looking back, 2023 was a year of absolute uncertainty. That was because of the economic climate and the advent of the new AI tools that we are seeing in the market. As we move into 2024, the dust is settling, and there is a lot of focus. When we think about corporate innovation, there’s a lot of focus on what short-term goals we can achieve to prepare for the long term. Even though the atmosphere is settling, there is still uncertainty regarding what AI can do. We have seen and tasted some success in terms of what use cases are being developed and becoming beneficial, but there is a lot more to do there. There’s a lot of focus on artificial intelligence and what we can do in the near term.
At this time, I would say that while there were budget cuts from innovation teams last year, there was also a reassessment of how we are innovating, and there was a lot of focus on what we can do immediately. There was a lot of focus on execution. THE EVOLVING JOB FUNCTION In terms of the job function, there were roles— even mine, if I think about the role—very specific to innovation. But it’s not going to be as it used to be. It’s not the function of one person or one team. Innovation is more democratized in the organization in terms of job function because of what we are seeing with technology. It’s becoming more of an organization- level function than one person or team doing the job— that’s how it’s evolving. It’s not the job function itself that’s evolving, but how innovation is perceived in the organization.
FEI 2024 & Key Innovation Perspectives
84
Powered by FlippingBook