Are We Inventing the Right Things?

Directing invention towards the opportunities that matter most

17 September 2026 | 16:00 BST · 17:00 CEST · 11:00 EDT | 45 minutes

AI can amplify human inventive capability. It can help inventors explore more of the technology landscape, connect distant knowledge and uncover new inventive directions.

But if AI expands the invention space, where should we go?

For R&D, IP and innovation leaders, this is becoming an important question. As organisations gain access to increasingly capable AI, the challenge is not simply generating more ideas. It is identifying where invention can create the greatest value and deciding which opportunities are worth pursuing.

On 17 September, Monty Barlow, Global Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Capgemini Invent, Julian Nolan, Founder & CEO of Iprova, and Sir Hossein Yassaie, technology investor and former CEO of Imagination Technologies plc, will explore these questions in a 45-minute webinar.

Where to invent for maximum enterprise value

The discussion will begin with a fundamental R&D question: where should an organisation direct its invention effort?

Monty Barlow will explore how organisations can identify technology and market opportunities where invention can create the greatest enterprise value, including opportunities that span technologies, value chains and ecosystems.

This raises an important challenge for R&D and innovation teams: how do you distinguish technologies that are simply interesting from opportunities where invention could create meaningful business value?

From opportunity to valuable invention

Once an organisation identifies somewhere worth inventing, the next challenge is exploring that opportunity deeply and quickly enough.

Julian Nolan will examine how human inventors and AI can work together to explore invention opportunities at greater speed and scale. The focus is not on replacing the inventor, but on using AI to expand the invention space while keeping human judgement and inventive direction central.

The discussion will consider what AI should do in the invention process, what should remain human, how AI can help inventors connect knowledge and explore possibilities, and how resulting inventions should be assessed and valued.

AI expands the invention space. The inventor decides where to go.

A live human + AI invention experiment

The webinar will put these ideas into practice with a live human + AI invention experiment. Sir Hossein Yassaie, Monty Barlow and Julian Nolan will work through a technology challenge, moving from market need to inventive direction to exploration, human judgement and evaluated invention.

The experiment will illustrate how AI can act as an intellectual amplifier while experienced human judgement guides the direction of the invention and determines what is worth pursuing.

Maximising the value of AI in R&D

The session will conclude with a discussion moderated by Sir Hossein Yassaie, exploring how organisations can maximise the economic value of AI in R&D, with a specific focus on the value of the outcomes it produces.

As AI expands what organisations can explore, the strategic question becomes not simply how quickly they can invent, but whether they are directing invention towards opportunities that matter.

Who should attend?

The webinar is for leaders and practitioners responsible for, or involved in, R&D, Engineering, Technology, Deep Tech, Intellectual Property, Invention, Innovation Strategy, AI Transformation and Corporate Technology.