Centre for Creativity enabled by AI wins prestigious design award

Design Sparks, a web tool combining artificial intelligence with creative thinking techniques for design projects, has won the Best Enhanced UX Design Platform at the latest annual Corporate Vision Artificial Intelligence Awards.

The web app, developed by the Centre for Creativity enabled by AI (CebAI) at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), generates ideas and considerations using short descriptions of design problems – known as ‘sparks’. It is aimed at product and service designers working in user experience (UX) or user interface (UI), as well as clients and stakeholders who work with them.

The algorithm works by taking a designer’s problem statement and uses artificial intelligence to create inventive directions. Responses are curated by CebAI’s design and creativity experts, which differentiates it from regular chatbots that mine existing internet data.

Launched in 2023, the tool is already being widely used by designers who need inspiration for a new product or service. Early users of Design Sparks include a global manufacturer of domestic appliances and commercial equipment, which places high premiums on innovative design and engineering of its products to improve daily life in homes.

It also includes a special circular design setting to encourage users to consider sustainable solutions or develop new circular economies. Design Sparks was showcased at the 2023 Design for Planet Festival, with a suite of prompts added to its latest version to promote a circular model of production and consumption – including sharing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products for sustainability.

Design Sparks was described by award judges as “an incredibly powerful and collaborative product for service designers and stakeholders” that “combines artificial intelligence with creative thinking techniques to prompt the user think more creatively.”

Professor Neil Maiden, Director of CebAI, said:

“We are delighted that our AI tools are recognised by a commercial awards platform for products that demonstrate innovation and excellence.

“Design Sparks will save many man hours as it speedily generates and focuses and prompts the user to consider design challenges from different perspectives. Unlike most chatbots that replace human ideation, it is specifically designed to augment human creativity and enable more innovation and exploration of ideas.

“It epitomises at lot of what CebAI exists for: making creative thinking and outcomes as accessible as possible for a wide audience of users.

“Artificial Intelligence is such a fast-moving technology wave that many people are still trying to understand how to best use it and apply it in their organisations, especially knowledge-based industries that value know-how over data analytics.

“CebAI is successfully translating applied research into cutting-edge consumer services, and our target now is to build up a business user base and provide more services to more companies.”

The Centre has recently launched a sister tool for Design Sparks, called Business Sparks, for CEOs, leaders, strategists and consultants, that combines AI reasoning with expert and up-to-date business knowledge curated by Bayes faculty and researchers.

Read more about Design Sparks and Business Sparks.

Find out more about Design Sparks' award.