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Inside IRI: The Urgency to Adopt AI for the Future of Innovation
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Read about key themes that emerged from Albert's breakout session on AI in R&D at the IRI Innovators Summit, such as creative new ways to engage with customers and the danger of data leakage.
Albert recently attended the IRI Innovators Summit, a forward-thinking event that brought together senior innovation leaders to discuss best practices and emerging trends in R&D. We were inspired by the diversity of innovation topics – from quantum computing to sustainable water purification – and the open, frank way in which attendees shared their challenges and successes. It was a privilege to be a part of this collaborative event and we left feeling energized about our role in shaping the future of innovation.
Enabling new business models with AI in R&D
Albert CEO and co-founder Nick Talken and VP of Enterprise Growth and Partnerships Bob Olsen hosted a 90-minute breakout session on the second day of the conference. Titled “Enabling New Business Models with AI in R&D,” the session was standing-room only – highlighting the community’s interest in AI.
Nick and Bob structured the conversation around the digitalization journey – a progression from digitalization to transformation, ultimately leading to new business models. For each step, they grounded the discussion with real-world case studies from Albert's customers:
Digitalization: The path to digitalization begins with a foundation of centralized, structured R&D data, resulting in IT consolidation and preservation of institutional knowledge. We illustrated this step through Henkel’s successful global digitalization journey across 2,800+ scientists.
Transformation: With a data foundation in place and a cultural shift driven by change management, organizations can deliver on the promise of AI and automation. For example, we shared how Henkel’s automated lab reduced testing from three weeks to one day, freeing up time for scientists to focus on innovation and strategy.
Enabling new business models: When digitalization is fully integrated within R&D, it can fundamentally change the way organizations serve their customers and bring products to market. Applied Molecules, for instance, can now take on bigger opportunity projects with their lowered cost of innovation and Nouryon’s AI-driven formulation tool, BeautyCreations, transforms how formulators and suppliers collaborate in the personal care industry.
Following the presentation, Nick and Bob moderated an open discussion with attendees, surfacing several key themes:
An urgency to embark on digital transformation
Most organizations were transparent about being in the early stages of digitalization, with some still using paper notebooks and Excel. Despite the shared nascency, there was still a sense of urgency – particularly in response to seeing a large organization such as Henkel so far along in their digitalization journey. There were a lot of questions about how Henkel achieved their global rollout, but a big surprise was that Henkel did not import all their historical data.
This seemed to be an important realization for many: just like in a leaky boat, the most important task is to plug the holes and fix the leaks by capturing clean and structured data as soon as possible. It’s always feasible to backfill historical data over time, based on relevancy and cost to process and contextualize the information. Rather than thinking backwards, it’s time to look forward.
Just like in a leaky boat, the most important task is to plug the holes and fix the leaks by capturing clean and structured data as soon as possible. Rather than thinking backwards, it's time to look forward.
Change management and how to measure adoption
While everyone agreed that digitalization is important, it is all hypothetical without organizational and cultural shifts. Change management was top of mind for many, both upward and outward in the organization, and some felt that they were alone in leading digital initiatives at their respective organizations. There was significant interest in using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) – which we reported for both Henkel’s automated lab and Nouryon’s BeautyCreations – as a metric for quantifying ground-level support.
The calculation for NPS involves surveying users on a scale of 0 to 10 about their likelihood to recommend a business or product and subtracting the percentage of detractors (0-6) from the percentage of promoters (9-10). NPS is widely used to gauge customer loyalty, but more and more companies are using it internally to understand adoption and enthusiasm throughout the digital transformation process.
AI as a tool for customer insights
With BeautyCreations as inspiration, we encouraged the group to brainstorm creative ways to use AI in their businesses. With an R&D-centric audience, the majority of ideas were related to gaining customer insights rather than go-to-market strategies. For example, one idea was to train generative AI on customer data to simulate their feedback, essentially creating a “virtual customer.” Although BeautyCreations is an AI sales agent, it is important to call out that it also helps Nouryon track market trends, which can in turn inform how they prioritize R&D initiatives.
Photo by David Bohrer / National Assoc. of Manufacturers.
The future of innovation
Outside of our breakout session, we attended many valuable presentations throughout the event. We particularly enjoyed a discussion about portfolio management led by Drew Child, Vice President of R&D at Miliken & Co. and Stéphane Bazzana, Global Technical Director of Automotive Coatings at PPG, as their thoughts on project prioritization and customer engagement in the chemical industry mirrored our own experiences in the software industry.
For example, it is important to balance the long-term projects that will shake the business with the short-term projects that provide quick wins, and it is necessary to judiciously pause – but not kill – projects. Another point that resonated with us is that the most valuable customers are the ones that engage deeply as partners and collaborate to develop joint solutions.
The most valuable customers are the ones that engage deeply as partners and collaborate to develop joint solutions.
We are sincerely grateful to IRI for hosting such an inspiring conference and for being highly collaborative. It was a pleasure to work with all those involved, including Paul Hartgen, Anna Chongpinitchai, and the rest of the organizers.
If we didn’t get the chance to connect at the IRI Innovators Summit, please reach out or Request a Demo to learn how Albert can accelerate innovation.
Albert recently attended the IRI Innovators Summit, a forward-thinking event that brought together senior innovation leaders to discuss best practices and emerging trends in R&D. We were inspired by the diversity of innovation topics – from quantum computing to sustainable water purification – and the open, frank way in which attendees shared their challenges and successes. It was a privilege to be a part of this collaborative event and we left feeling energized about our role in shaping the future of innovation.
Enabling new business models with AI in R&D
Albert CEO and co-founder Nick Talken and VP of Enterprise Growth and Partnerships Bob Olsen hosted a 90-minute breakout session on the second day of the conference. Titled “Enabling New Business Models with AI in R&D,” the session was standing-room only – highlighting the community’s interest in AI.
Nick and Bob structured the conversation around the digitalization journey – a progression from digitalization to transformation, ultimately leading to new business models. For each step, they grounded the discussion with real-world case studies from Albert's customers:
Digitalization: The path to digitalization begins with a foundation of centralized, structured R&D data, resulting in IT consolidation and preservation of institutional knowledge. We illustrated this step through Henkel’s successful global digitalization journey across 2,800+ scientists.
Transformation: With a data foundation in place and a cultural shift driven by change management, organizations can deliver on the promise of AI and automation. For example, we shared how Henkel’s automated lab reduced testing from three weeks to one day, freeing up time for scientists to focus on innovation and strategy.
Enabling new business models: When digitalization is fully integrated within R&D, it can fundamentally change the way organizations serve their customers and bring products to market. Applied Molecules, for instance, can now take on bigger opportunity projects with their lowered cost of innovation and Nouryon’s AI-driven formulation tool, BeautyCreations, transforms how formulators and suppliers collaborate in the personal care industry.
Following the presentation, Nick and Bob moderated an open discussion with attendees, surfacing several key themes:
An urgency to embark on digital transformation
Most organizations were transparent about being in the early stages of digitalization, with some still using paper notebooks and Excel. Despite the shared nascency, there was still a sense of urgency – particularly in response to seeing a large organization such as Henkel so far along in their digitalization journey. There were a lot of questions about how Henkel achieved their global rollout, but a big surprise was that Henkel did not import all their historical data.
This seemed to be an important realization for many: just like in a leaky boat, the most important task is to plug the holes and fix the leaks by capturing clean and structured data as soon as possible. It’s always feasible to backfill historical data over time, based on relevancy and cost to process and contextualize the information. Rather than thinking backwards, it’s time to look forward.
Just like in a leaky boat, the most important task is to plug the holes and fix the leaks by capturing clean and structured data as soon as possible. Rather than thinking backwards, it's time to look forward.
Change management and how to measure adoption
While everyone agreed that digitalization is important, it is all hypothetical without organizational and cultural shifts. Change management was top of mind for many, both upward and outward in the organization, and some felt that they were alone in leading digital initiatives at their respective organizations. There was significant interest in using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) – which we reported for both Henkel’s automated lab and Nouryon’s BeautyCreations – as a metric for quantifying ground-level support.
The calculation for NPS involves surveying users on a scale of 0 to 10 about their likelihood to recommend a business or product and subtracting the percentage of detractors (0-6) from the percentage of promoters (9-10). NPS is widely used to gauge customer loyalty, but more and more companies are using it internally to understand adoption and enthusiasm throughout the digital transformation process.
AI as a tool for customer insights
With BeautyCreations as inspiration, we encouraged the group to brainstorm creative ways to use AI in their businesses. With an R&D-centric audience, the majority of ideas were related to gaining customer insights rather than go-to-market strategies. For example, one idea was to train generative AI on customer data to simulate their feedback, essentially creating a “virtual customer.” Although BeautyCreations is an AI sales agent, it is important to call out that it also helps Nouryon track market trends, which can in turn inform how they prioritize R&D initiatives.
Photo by David Bohrer / National Assoc. of Manufacturers.
The future of innovation
Outside of our breakout session, we attended many valuable presentations throughout the event. We particularly enjoyed a discussion about portfolio management led by Drew Child, Vice President of R&D at Miliken & Co. and Stéphane Bazzana, Global Technical Director of Automotive Coatings at PPG, as their thoughts on project prioritization and customer engagement in the chemical industry mirrored our own experiences in the software industry.
For example, it is important to balance the long-term projects that will shake the business with the short-term projects that provide quick wins, and it is necessary to judiciously pause – but not kill – projects. Another point that resonated with us is that the most valuable customers are the ones that engage deeply as partners and collaborate to develop joint solutions.
The most valuable customers are the ones that engage deeply as partners and collaborate to develop joint solutions.
We are sincerely grateful to IRI for hosting such an inspiring conference and for being highly collaborative. It was a pleasure to work with all those involved, including Paul Hartgen, Anna Chongpinitchai, and the rest of the organizers.
If we didn’t get the chance to connect at the IRI Innovators Summit, please reach out or Request a Demo to learn how Albert can accelerate innovation.