OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI chatbot product has had a significant impact on businesses and society in a short amount of time. In only four days, ChatGPT had reached 1 million users, and in just two months, it achieved 100 million users, 75% faster than any other technology company. With its ability to seemingly solve problems in almost any industry, domain or context, harnessing ChatGPT’s power requires a new approach of emergent thinking. Unlike traditional innovation methods, there are no clear problems to address, user pain points to alleviate or KPIs to achieve with ChatGPT.
To help businesses integrate ChatGPT into their products, processes, and services, research has found three emergent-thinking pathways for success. The first pathway involves using ChatGPT to strengthen a company’s current value proposition by integrating the tool without directing it toward any specific customer problems. Businesses can then naturally engage with ChatGPT and understand its core functions to make connections to problems they may be aware of. For example, the product-management tool Notion now provides customers with immediate access to ChatGPT to create AI responses that can be integrated into existing tasks and workflows.
The second pathway uses ChatGPT to expand a company’s value proposition by solving new problems for customers. This involves breaking down the value proposition into three core elements and assessing how ChatGPT’s core functions can help expand each element in new directions. This complements design thinking, where brainstorming techniques are applied to the problem.
The final pathway uses ChatGPT to explore a completely new value proposition that customers may not even know they need yet. Although this pathway is uncertain and requires the most caution, it may create the biggest breakthrough. When brainstorming different goals, contexts, and target demographics, businesses can identify a clear and coherent analogy that summarizes the core value proposition.
ChatGPT is an unprecedented tool with the potential to create value for millions of customers across many industries. However, it also comes with considerable risks, as we are entering uncharted territory with AI, and we must learn how to use it effectively so it can be leveraged for positive outcomes. By integrating ChatGPT into businesses with the three emergent-thinking pathways, the tool can be used to strengthen and expand value propositions and explore completely new ones.
