Sometimes it just takes a simple, provocative statement to kick-off the innovation process – to remove an everyday given like driving a car or possessing a landline phone or centralizing all of your data in the cloud – to fuel the innovation process. Henrik Christensen, director of University San Diego's Contractual Robotics Institute, issued such a provocative statement: "My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car." I have recently been promoted to Chief Innovation Officer at Hitachi Vantara. I am very excited about the opportunity to build upon my work to interweave data science, design thinking, value engineering and economics to create a "Pathway to Analytics-driven Innovation" map that helps organizations derive and drive new sources of customer, product and operational value. Think of the "Pathway to Analytics-driven Innovation" as a maturity model that measures how effective organizations are at leveraging analytics to deliver innovative products and services to the market.

While innovation can be categorized in familiar terms -- such as a new product, service, or business model -- we're finding companies are applying analytics and artificial intelligence techniques to the concept of innovation. Organizations we work with are turning to tools such as machine learning to pursue a fast, effective route to innovative results as they seek to stay competitive and top-of-mind for consumers. For our Accenture Technology Vision 2016 report, we surveyed 3,100 business and IT executives in 11 countries. We found that 70% of respondents are making significantly more investments in artificial intelligence technologies than they did in 2013, with 55% stating that they plan on using machine learning and embedded AI solutions extensively. An analytics-driven approach to innovation involves a blend of technological experimentation and cultural collaboration -- bringing together fresh minds and analytics techniques to uncover insights and ideas which can inspire agility, industry disruption and customer loyalty.