An extended AI-experience: Industry 5.0 in creative product innovation

Creativity plays a significant role in competitive product ideation. With the increasing emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, the link between such technologies and product ideation is explored in this research to assist and augment creative scenarios in the engineering field. A bibliographic analysis is performed to review relevant fields and their relationships. This is followed by a review of current challenges in group ideation and state-of-the-art technologies with the aim of addressing them in this study. This knowledge is applied to the transformation of current ideation scenarios into a virtual environment using AI. The aim is to augment designers’ creative experiences, a core value of Industry 5.0 that focuses on human-centricity, social and ecological benefits. For the first time, this research reclaims brainstorming as a challenging and inspiring activity where participants are fully engaged through a combination of AI and VR technologies. This activity is enhanced through three key areas: facilitation, stimulation, and immersion. These areas are integrated through intelligent team moderation, enhanced communication techniques, and access to multi-sensory stimuli during the collaborative creative process, therefore providing a platform for future research into Industry 5.0 and smart product development.