A solution looking for problems? A systematic literature review of the rationalizing influence of artificial intelligence on decision-making in innovation management

Given innovation's chaotic nature, organizations struggle to make decisions when managing innovation. Both academics and practitioners hope artificial intelligence can solve this problem and provide a solution to support and rationalize innovation processes. The literature on this topic, however, is fragmented. The goal of this paper is to systematically review the literature to guide future research. We build on the garbage can model, as our findings reveal that the rationalizing influences of AI on innovation management as a decision-making process is varied. Our results reveal four main influences that pave the way for future research: AI augmenting rationality, AI augmenting creativity, AI renewing the organizing of innovation, and AI triggering new challenges. Taken together, these findings suggest AI is not a tool that uniformly optimizes innovation management and decision-making but rather, is best understood as a multifaceted solution, with intended and unintended rationalizing influences, in search of problems to solve.