{"id":1411,"date":"2026-07-09T12:55:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aiinstitute.hbs.edu\/future-proof-with-ai\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:55:35","slug":"algorithms-of-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aiinstitute.hbs.edu\/future-proof-with-ai\/algorithms-of-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"Algorithms of Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>A new framework for creating original ideas with AI<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGive me 20 headlines.\u201d \u201cCreate 30 research questions.\u201d \u201cGenerate 50 business ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beneath these requests lies an intuitive assumption about large language models: that originality emerges automatically from quantity. If an AI can generate ideas faster than humans, then perhaps creativity becomes a problem of volume. Yet anyone who has brainstormed with ChatGPT or another LLM has quickly discovered the limitations of this approach. The outputs are often confident and polished, but also slightly repetitive and just off the mark. An important prompting challenge, then, is how to think with AI in ways that intelligently boost novelty. The paper \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jcr\/ucaf012\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ideation with Generative AI\u2014in Consumer Research and Beyond<\/a>,\u201d published in the <em>Journal of Consumer Research<\/em> and co-written by HBS AI Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=1326184\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Julian De Freitas<\/a>, offers a new framework for understanding both what LLMs bring to brainstorming and where they fall short. The result is a practical roadmap for supercharging creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why This Matters<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The authors explain that current LLMs excel primarily at producing incremental variations (\u201csmall ideas\u201d) rather than paradigm-shifting breakthroughs (\u201cbig ideas\u201d), so organizations that completely replace human-driven work with AI-generated output face an unseen ceiling on true innovation. Leaders and executives making decisions about product innovation, customer research, marketing strategy, or organizational change, should encourage their employees to use LLMs as configurable collaborators. The companies that benefit most will not simply produce more ideas, they\u2019ll keep their employees engaged, test assumptions, and find real insights that merit investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aiinstitute.hbs.edu\/algorithms-of-imagination\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Link to the HBS AI Institute Insight Article<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jcr\/ucaf012\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Link to the Research Paper<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/aiinstitute.hbs.edu\/#join-our-community\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with HBS AI Institute news and research<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new framework for creating original ideas with AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_trash_the_other_posts":false,"rkv_hide_featured_image":false,"rkv_hide_page_title":false,"rkv_hide_abstract_shapes":true,"rkv_reduce_header":false,"hbsd3_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/1207883799","hbsd3_featured_media_url_autoplay":false,"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"tax_cop":[],"rkv-people-shadow":[],"insight_type":[],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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