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Adding creative problem solving to artificial intelligence will support the next generation of business leaders in improved decision making.

CreAtIve Comm 22, led by the National Centre for Creativity enabled by AI (CebAI) and hosted by Bayes Business School, explored how AI, creative processes and business data can be used to improve workplace innovation and problem solving.

The conference hosted four sessions, including a conversation with Professor Neil Maiden, Director of CebAI, and Nigel Redman, former professional rugby player and Head of Performance Team Development at England Rugby, on process, coaching and finding creative solutions.

Mr Redman discussed the need to adopt a beginner’s mind to learn impactfully and find new creative explanations to barriers. He discussed the need for coaches and leaders to think more creatively if they are to support athletes to be game changers, citing the value of knowledge while appreciating it can be “the biggest inhibitor of growth”.

Other sessions included a creative problem-solving workshop, led by Dr Sara Jones and Andy Wilkins, Senior Honorary Visiting Fellow at Bayes. The workshop was a hands-on opportunity for delegates to experience a creative problem-solving process to generate innovative solutions to a real-world problem. The delegates came up with new and unexpected solutions to address the issue of creating a sense of community among people who are rarely able to share the same space.

Nigel Redman with Neil Maiden

Nigel Redman and Professor Neil Maiden in discussion

The type of processes used in the workshop, and long utilised in creative industries, are now being codified into CebAI AI to enable individuals, without any training or prior knowledge of these processes, to engage in effective creative problem solving and workplace innovation.

The impact of new technology designed by CebAI, including two services currently up and running and demonstrated at the event Sport Sparks and JECT.AI, was outlined by Professor Maiden. The former is an app designed for coaches to apply creative problem-solving strategies to their practices and the latter supports the media in increasing diversity and creativity in content creation.

The final session invited panellists Hamish McAlpine, former UKRI head and now Oxentia Consultant; Chris Payne, Investment Associate at Oxford Capital; and Hao Zheng, Co-founder of RoboK, an AI tech company born out of the University of Cambridge, to discuss how to structure knowledge exchange activities to create successful start-ups. The panel also discussed how to leverage the commercial advantage that higher education can add to the UK economy – valued at £11.6 billion worth of support and services for small enterprises, businesses, and not-for-profits – and the ability to generate almost 22,000 new companies and charities, over the next five years.

“CebAI is now delivering on its promise to deliver creativity-on-demand to business professionals through our innovative technologies,” said Professor Maiden. “Creative problem solving powered by AI is available now for sports coaches, with solutions for business leaders and designers coming early in 2023. I’m delighted with the progress and responses to our work, and its commercial potential”.

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