By Dave Westman
For 18 years in my own business, I developed methods for coming up with creative ideas. I also helped develop and market test new products and services for entrepreneurs. Now, thanks to some free time and a holiday on the Gold Coast, I’m doing a market test for myself.
How the brain works
Working with a client, NeuroCapability, I discovered the power of understanding how the brain works, especially in the creative process and habit formation. This made good processes even better.
How AI works
AI is generally regarded as good at collating and rehashing information but not great at coming up with original ideas. I thought rebuilding the same processes used by the brain in an AI-driven environment, I could generate genuine, original creative ideas – at scale.
Initial trials
I have successfully applied the AI platform in the marketing space – coming up with creative campaign ideas. To explore the limits of its application, I’m using The People Say to conduct three campaigns:
- A global app – that tells the user how long it will take them to vote, to get their banking done, or get through security at the airport. (This app has been on the back burner for a few years).
- One national issue – Getting economic develop in remote communities. (I come from a remote community and have worked in many around Australia).
- One local issue – Transport on the Gold Coast (I came to visit the Gold Coast with family at the same time that Stage 3 launched).
Outcomes
It is the process being tested here so the quality of the outcome is what gets measured. For the first campaign, Gold Coast Transport, the actual poll is not the input I need. It just encourages people to have their say. My goal is to collect the arguments for and against, the human feedback, the preferences, the sticking points, etc. All this information will form the “problem environment” in which the processes will operate.
Will the outcome be a path forward that could be sold to a government or a political party? Probably not. The benefit of the campaign is the R&D and like any other business, I have to fund my own R&D.
Will the outcome of economic opportunities in remote Australia be a path forward for a government or an industry? Possibly. Again, it’s the efficacy of the process that is important.
Will the app campaign get it launched? Not sure about that. I held off on development in 2016 because I suspected Google would do something similar and beat me to it. (I was wrong).
Thanks for all the submissions
The feedback into the system has been amazing and, when it is combined with all the other public sources of information, it will be a great dataset to drive innovation. But the key to using the “Wisdom of the Crowd” is getting a diverse range of opinions from a diverse range of people. That’s why I am very keen to attract submissions with all points of view. I want to keep collecting data for a bit longer (and my wife wants to spend more time on the coast) so I can’t wait to see how well the process works.