Gartner Anticipates a New Era for Innovation

Every few years, Gartner resets the conversation on what innovation management platforms should deliver. Their latest Market Guide for Innovation Management Platforms makes some exciting predictions about increasing demand and new capabilities.

What we see in the market today is a rapid consolidation around fewer, more powerful platforms. At the same time, buyer expectations have risen sharply. It’s no longer enough to just collect ideas. Today’s innovation leaders want platforms that cover the full journey: demand sensing, trendspotting, ideation, ecosystem management, execution, and value realization. They want a one-stop shop and we support that with our end-to-end approach.

But in an evolving market where last year’s hype could be next year’s bubble, shiny features won’t separate winners from the rest. Trust and credibility will.

Short answers and FAQs

When AI multiplies the noise

What is already a reality in the market is a wave of “agent washing” with vendors dressing up predetermined workflows as autonomous AI. Practitioners point out that so-called agents are often just scripted workflows designed for a narrow purpose, and triggered by natural language rather than code. It’s useful, but not revolutionary. For now, keeping a human in the loop is still the norm. That doesn’t mean agents won’t mature quickly, but it does mean buyers should treat bold promises with caution.

Weak inputs such as generic prompts, vague ambitions, and messy internal systems only produce weaker outputs at scale.

Too many innovation leaders still assume AI can rescue a broken pipeline or magically surface the best ideas. In reality, AI is an amplifier. Weak inputs such as generic prompts, vague ambitions, and messy internal systems only produce weaker outputs at scale. Instead of creating clarity, AI risks amplifying chaos and confusion.

This is why there’s growing recognition of AI literacy’s importance. Innovation teams need to understand the limitations of large language models, mitigate bias, and remove hallucinations. Just as importantly, organizations need an effective way to organize all this output. Without that foundation, even the most advanced platform will fail to deliver real value.

And innovation is still, at its core, a human endeavor. Participation is always discretionary: if people don’t see how their contributions matter, they disengage. AI alone cannot fix that. Transparency, recognition and the opportunity to apply their skills is what keeps innovation communities thriving.

At ITONICS, we see AI as a powerful capability, not a cure-all. Its real value comes when it is used by people with the discernment to separate opportunity from hype. That’s why our focus is on building AI that eliminates unnecessary work, while empowering innovators to make sharper, faster, and more credible decisions.

Trust is vital in innovation management

The market for innovation management software is consolidating fast. Recent acquisitions, such as HYPE acquiring Planbox, ITONICS acquiring Braineet, and Wazoku acquiring Idea Drop, show that the number of serious players is shrinking. Consolidation means fewer choices for buyers, but also higher stakes for credibility.

The real differentiator will be trust. Many innovation programs fail not because of software features, but because of human and organizational factors, such as:

Lack of participation and engagement.
Lack of executive commitment.
Different departments using different platforms, which hinders collaboration and adds complexity rather than reducing it.

If organizations don’t act on what teams contribute, innovation platforms risk becoming graveyards of unused ideas and research. When vendors oversell capabilities, they weaken trust with both innovation leaders and their participants.

Why leading companies choose ITONICS

At ITONICS, we know that trust is something that’s earned over time. Since 2009, we’ve partnered with innovation leaders across industries and geographies to help them move from strategy to execution. Our track record has been recognized year after year: ITONICS is the only innovation management software in the world to be recognized by Gartner in 4 different innovation categories in their Hype Cycle for Innovation Practices.

Today, more than 500 organizations worldwide, including adidas, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Mondelez, Siemens, and KPMG, have upgraded their approach to innovation with the ITONICS Innovation OS. We bring together foresight, ideation, and portfolio execution in one platform, supported by a global team of experts who understand the technological and human side of innovation.