Exploring the Top-Priority Innovation Types and Their Reasons

This is a foresight study to explore the top priorities of innovation types and the reasons behind them with respect to artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This study set up two research strategies. One of the research strategies is to make the research design and methods fit with this study’s intellectual queries. Another strategy is to use the triangulations of method, analysis, data source, and researcher. This study selected expert panels, the Delphi technique, and interviews. In the collection of the qualitative and quantitative data from 23 experts through the Delphi surveys, it organized respectively the qualitative and quantitative data analysis. This study conducted the two main data analyses–Delphi results and interview data. Service innovation of AI and process innovation of IoT are chosen as a top-priority-innovation type. Marketing innovation of big data, as non-technological innovation, is selected as a top-priority innovation type. Through the interviews with 17 experts, for each of the pairs, all the experts said that the three technologies can have greater technological capabilities going beyond the existing capacities of relevant technologies. AI as hyper-intelligence can help to provide more customized or sophisticated converging offerings, the regulation of various non-standardized services and service provisions through the interaction between AI and customers or employees. The technological capacity of big data and the need of customer preferences can lead marketing innovation. IoT can create the new or improved process of the manufacturing, production, and supply chain areas through hyper-connectivity in terms of quality, quantity, speed, and coverage of information.