AI for Breakthrough Innovation: Analogical Thinking in Action

Use analogical AI to see problems differently, surface unexpected solutions, and drive breakthrough innovation.

Today’s leaders are expected to use AI to produce faster breakthroughs with fewer resources. Yet standard large language models may reinforce familiar patterns of thinking, narrowing the range of ideas teams consider and generating incremental solutions rather than the unexpected advances that create meaningful advantage. Breakthrough innovation often comes from recognizing structural connections across seemingly unrelated fields—from origami-inspired solar sails for NASA to burr-inspired Velcro. Grounded in more than 12 years of Carnegie Mellon research and demonstrated in a Fortune 500 pilot that increased idea novelty by 54% on long-standing challenges, this program shows leaders how to use analogical AI to challenge established assumptions, move beyond siloed thinking, and uncover unexpected, high-impact solutions.

Through hands-on application, participants will bring a pressing organizational challenge into Analogical Engines, an AI platform developed from Carnegie Mellon research to identify and translate relevant approaches across different fields. By comparing its results with those generated by standard LLMs, participants will learn to recognize cognitive blind spots, explore new possibilities, adapt promising ideas to real-world constraints, and determine whether they could work in practice. Real-time tool testing, group collaboration, and peer feedback will equip participants with a practical, repeatable model for AI-augmented innovation, full ownership of the breakthrough concepts they generate, and one month of access to Analogical Engines to continue developing potential solutions after the program.

Data Privacy and Confidentiality

Analogical Engines keeps participant-submitted problems and generated results secure and private. Each participant’s information is stored separately and is shared with other participants only if indicated. Participant data is used solely to support the program delivery and is never used to train AI models. Participants’ data will be automatically deleted at the end of the one-month post-program platform access period, or earlier upon request.

Key Takeaways

Recognize when standard AI brainstorming is narrowing your team’s ideas, and choose a different approach.
Restate a domain-specific problem in terms of its underlying mechanism so that solutions from distant fields become visible.
Apply frameworks to move a candidate idea from analogy to a testable concept.
Use AI to search for breadth across fields while reserving your experts’ time for depth and evaluation.
Develop concrete solutions to resolve persistent organizational challenges.
Continue developing solutions with one month of access to the Analogical Engines platform following the program.

Who Should Attend

This program is designed for leaders and individual contributors who are accountable for innovation outcomes, not only for adopting AI tools.

It is ideal for leaders and contributors who:

Own a pipeline of product, service, or process problems that would benefit from novel, yet feasible ideas
Lead cross-functional teams that get trapped in their own silos
Are being asked to show results from AI investment in innovation and have found that faster brainstorming has not produced better ideas
Want a repeatable method for breakthrough ideation rather than one that depends on the occasional lucky insight

No AI background is required. The program does not cover AI foundations; it assumes working familiarity with tools such as ChatGPT and goes directly to application.

Opening Insights & The LLM Trap - Examine why standard AI tools systematically homogenize ideation and reduce divergent thinking. Participants score the baseline AI responses generated from their pre-submitted problems against empirical metrics to pinpoint where off-the-shelf LLMs fail.

The SMaRT Framework - Learn the science of analogical cross-domain transfer through frameworks: grounded in more than 12 years of Carnegie Mellon research; leaders deconstruct iconic cross-domain breakthroughs and examine real-world enterprise pilot data.

Applied Case Benchmark - Apply the framework to a practice challenge that benchmarks human table outputs directly against specialized Analogical Engine results to identify cognitive blind spots and see how specialized AI breaks expert fixation.

Engine Lab I: Deep Work on Pre-Submitted Challenges - Working directly with the Analogical Engine, participants work on their actual business problems, surface first-pass candidate directions, and submit parameters for deep overnight AI processing.

Engine Lab II: Iteration, Constraints & Refinement - Analyze the unexpected structural reframings generated overnight by the system. Participants inject real-world feedback, operational constraints, and edge cases into the tool to stress-test ideas and lock in two to three high-feasibility, high-novelty solutions.

Strategic Synergy & Idea Refinement - Explore research-backed and AI-augmented strategies for building cross-functional synergies and refining ideas to capitalize on latent opportunities. Leaders examine key evaluation frameworks and optimization levers required to systematically mitigate trade-offs and maximize value in their ideas.

Leading AI-Augmented Culture & Change - Explore organizational strategies for overcoming institutional inertia and promoting radical innovation to risk-averse stakeholders. Leaders examine key change management levers and cultural shifts required to influence AI-augmented, cross-domain thinking across teams.

Strategy, Business Case & Next Steps - Translate refined breakthrough concepts into actionable strategic plans complete with rapid-testing protocols and executive business cases. Conclude with table synthesis, key takeaways, and distribution of ongoing tool usage credits for post-session application.

Meet Your Instructor

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Henny Admoni Associate Professor of Robotics

Yuvraj Agarwal Professor

Deepak Agrawal Visiting Assistant Professor of Operations Management

Mustafa Akan Associate Professor of Operations Management

Parand Akbari Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Homaira Akbari (MSIA '96) President & CEO, AKnowledge Partners, LLC

James F. Albertus Assistant Professor of Finance

Laurence Ales Interim Dean; Professor of Economics

Sean Ammirati Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship

Spencer Anderson (J.D.) Senior Manager, Special Projects

Yalun Ao Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Rebekah Apple Director, Master of Medical Management Program, Heinz College

Jay Apt Professor Emeritus

Linda Argote Thomas Lord University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory; Director, Center of Organizational Learning, Innovation and Knowledge

Stephen Arndt Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Anyada (Pim) Assavabhokhin Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Brandy L. Aven Associate Professor of Organizational Theory, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship

Andrea Bajcsy Assistant Professor of Robotics

Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou Richard P. Simmons Professor of Finance

Laurie Barkman Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

Kate Barraclough Vice Provost for Education; Teaching Professor of Finance

Genaro Basulto Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Lujo Bauer Professor, ECE-S3D

Joe Beaman Adjunct Professor of Management; Director of Carnegie Mellon Dining Services

James Best Associate Professor of Economics

Carla Bevins Associate Teaching Professor of Business Communication

Rima Bhattacharyay Assistant Teaching Professor of Strategy

Richard Bi Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Patrick Blonien Assistant Professor of Finance

Peter Boatwright Allan D. Shocker Professor of Marketing and New Product Development; Director of the Integrated Innovation Institute

Arthur A. Boni John R. Thorne Distinguished Career Professor of Entrepreneurship, Emeritus

Serra Boranbay-Akan Associate Teaching Professor of Economics

Jeffrey Brashear Distinguished Service Professor of AI and Management

Allen S. Brown Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Clara Burke Associate Teaching Professor of Business Management Communication

Mary Butler-Everson Adjunct Professor of Technology Strategy and Product Management

Emily Zhongqi Cai Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Guillermo Caliendo Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Communications

Zheng (James) Cao Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Leonard Caric Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

Sebastian Ceria (MSIA '90, Ph.D. '93) President, Fundar

Henry Chai Assistant Teaching Professor

Jonathan Chapman Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design

Ming Ming Chapman Distinguished Service Professor of Design

Sofía Rodríguez Chaves Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Yuhan Chen Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Soo-Haeng Cho IBM Professor of Operations Management and Strategy

Jiwon Choi Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Rosalind Chow Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory

So-Young (Iris) Chung Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Eugene Clark Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Karen Clay Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor of Economics and Public Policy

Mark Coblitz (MSIA ’82) Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning (retired), Comcast Corporation

Taya Cohen Professor of Organizational Behavior and Business Ethics

Helen Colby Assistant Teaching Professor of Marketing

Tre Coles Associate Director of Masters Admissions

Benjamin Collier Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics

Ned Collins Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

Kathleen Conway , Ed.D. Executive Director, MSBA and MSM

Jenny Cordina (MBA '02) Partner, McKinsey & Company

Gérard P. Cornuéjols IBM University Professor of Operations Research, Emeritus

David A. Coulter (BSIM ’71, MSIA ’71) Chair of the Board, CMU Board of Trustees Special Limited Partner, Warburg Pincus

Robert M. Dammon Dean Emeritus and Richard C. Green Professor of Financial Economics Emeritus

Samantha Dawkins Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Emily DeJeu Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Communication

Lyenda Simpson Delp (MSIA ‘97) Head of Global Insurance and Institutional Asset Solutions, Franklin Templeton

Frank Demmler Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

Diane DeNardo Admissions Coordinator

Matthew Denes Assistant Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship

Abbe Depretis Associate Teaching Professor of Business Communication

Tim Derdenger Associate Dean for Masters Programs; Associate Professor of Marketing and Strategy

Emily Diana Assistant Professor of Operations Research, BP Junior Faculty Chair

Henry Diep Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Ziqian Ding Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

John Dolan Principal Systems Scientist

Linda Du Assistant Professor of Finance

Kenneth B. Dunn Professor of Financial Economics, Emeritus

Tim Ederer Assistant Professor of Economics

Brad Eiben Executive Director, MSPM

Kate Emory Associate Director of Masters Admissions

Dennis Epple Thomas Lord University Professor of Economics, Emeritus

Stephanie Ercegovic (BSIM '82, MSIA '83) Portfolio Manager (retired), Alphadyne Capital Management

Selman Erol Associate Professor of Economics

Russell Ewing (MSIA '96) Portfolio Manager (retired), Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Qitong Feng Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Rhonda D. Fischer Chief Operating Officer

Christina Fong Research Scientist, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Dietrich College

Paul Fonteyne (MSIA ‘87) Chairman and CEO (retired), Boehringer-Ingelheim USA

Mohsen Foroughifar Assistant Professor of Business Technologies

Jim Foster Adjunct Professor of Finance

Jennifer Frick Director of High Impact Learning; Business Administration Additional Major and Minor Advisor

Max Friedman Adjunct Professor of Product Management

Nathan (Nate) Fulham Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Jeffrey Galak Associate Professor Of Marketing

Xuefei (Ian) Gao Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Yihe Gao Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

John Gasper Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programs; Teaching Professor of Economics

Madeleine Gates Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Martin Gaynor E.J. Barone Professor of Economics and Health Policy, Heinz College, and by Courtesy, Tepper School of Business

Onur Genҫ (MSIA '97) CEO, BBVA Group

Ioannis Gkioulekas Associate Professor of Robotics

Brent Glover Associate Professor of Finance

Tony Gomez Senior Associate Director of Masters Admissions

Evelyn Xiaoyue Gong Assistant Professor of Operations Management

David Charles Goyette Associate Teaching Professor of Acting and Business Communication

Alex Grelli Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Entrepreneurship

Meredith Meyer Grelli Vice Provost, Entrepreneurship and Associate Vice President; Associate Teaching Professor of Entrepreneurship

Eyup Orhun Gun Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Quinn Guy Executive Assistant, Dean's Office

Oliver Hahl Senior Associate Dean for Education; Professor of Organizational Theory, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship

Mor Harchol-Balter Professor of Computer Science, School of Computer Science and by Courtesy, Tepper School of Business

Brenda Bakker Harger Teaching Professor, Entertainment Technology Center

Don Heberle (MSIA '95) Head of PNC Private Bank, PNC Financial Services

Lori Heinel (MSIA '92) Executive Vice President and Global CIO, State Street Global Advisors

Wendy S. Hermann Executive Director, Student Services, Masters Programs

Dale Hershey Associate Teaching Professor of Law Emeritus

Geoffrey Hitch Associate Teaching Professor of Acting and Business Communications, Emeritus

Willem-Jan Van Hoeve Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research

Burton Hollifield PNC Professor of Finance; Professor of Financial Economics

Diming Hong Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

John Hooker T. Jerome Holleran Professor of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility; University Professor of Operations Research, Emeritus

Keishi Hotsuki (MSIA ’89) Deputy Chairman, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

Michael Hsu (BS ‘86) Chairman of the Board & CEO, Kimberly-Clark Corporation

William Huang Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Yiyang (Edward) Huang Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Kim Hyatt Teaching Professor

Jisoo Hyun Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Kate Ickes Director of Administrative Operations; Specialty and Economics Additional Major and Minor Advisor

Benjamin Iorio Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Roni Israelov Adjunct Instructor of Finance

Cody James Januszko Adjunct Professor of Business Management Communication

Jim Jen Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship

Yeonhwan (Ray) Jeong Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Jiaming Jiang Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Zoey Jiang Assistant Professor of Business Technologies

Rebecca Joyce Executive Director, Accelerate Leadership Center

Joseph B. Kadane Leonard J. Savage University Professor of Statistics and Social Sciences, Emeritus

Jack Karaffa Academic Program Manager, Accelerate Leadership Center

Gunjan Kedia (MSIA ’94) Chairman & CEO, U.S. Bancorp

Sham Kekre Distinguished Service Professor of Operations Management

Sunder Kekre Professor of Operations Management

Robert Kelley Distinguished Service Professor of Management

Zeigham Khokher Associate Teaching Professor of Finance

Dunya Khoury Assistant Director of Masters Admissions

Fatma Kılınç-Karzan Andris A. Zoltners Professor of Operations Research

Gayoung Kim Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Jaymo Kim Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Minkyung Kim Assistant Professor of Marketing

Tae Wan Kim Associate Professor of Business Ethics

Yubin Kim Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Natalie Kindler Leadership Coach, Accelerate Leadership Center

Jon R. Kinol (MSIA ’92) Founder, Zenik Capital, LLC

Aditya Kiran Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

David Krackhardt Professor of Organizations, Heinz College and Joint Appointment at Tepper School of Business

Robert E. Kraut Herbert A. Simon Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, Emeritus, School of Computer Science and Joint Appointment at Tepper School of Business

Oliver Kroemer Associate Professor

Lars-Alexander Kuehn Professor of Finance, MSCF Steering Committee Representative

Reenie Kuhlman Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Jennifer Kukawa Executive Assistant

Rachitesh Kumar Assistant Professor of Operations Management

Helen Kwon Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Finn E. Kydland University Professor of Economics and Richard P. Simmons Distinguished Professor, Emeritus; Nobel Laureate (2004)

William Lambert (MSIA ’90) Chairman of the Board (retired), MSA Safety

David L. Lamont Associate Teaching Professor; Director, Management Games

Amy LaSota Senior Associate Director of Masters Admissions

David Lassman Distinguished Service Professor of Organizational Management, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy

Jarred Lazear Leadership Coach, Accelerate Leadership Center

Derek Leben Teaching Professor of Business Ethics

Juan Rivera Lebron Distinguished Service Professor of Business Communication and Acting

Mike M. Lee Managing Director, Finance

Sunkee Lee Associate Professor of Organizational Theory and Strategy

Rebecca Lessem Associate Professor of Economics

Andrew A. Li Associate Professor of Operations Research

Beibei Li Anna Loomis McCandless Chair and Professor of IT and Management, Heinz College

Cheng (Leo) Li Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

David Suyuan Li Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Xinxin Li Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Jiaxi Liang Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Pierre Liang Professor of Accounting

Yucheng Liang Assistant Professor of Accounting

Ari Lightman Professor, Digital Media and Marketing | Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy

David Lindbauer Assistant Professor

Changliu Liu Associate Professor

Siyue Liu Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Alex John London K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies

Hou Wan (Darren) Long Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Tong (Joy) Lu Assistant Professor of Marketing

Corbin Lubianski Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Meg Lukus Executive Director, MBA Programs

David Major Associate Dean, Engagement and International Partnerships; Teaching Professor of Strategy

Nikhil Malik Assistant Professor of Marketing and Business Technology

Craig Markovitz Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship

John H. Mather Teaching Professor of Marketing, Emeritus

David S. Mawhinney Founding Executive Director, Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship; Executive Director, Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship; Teaching Professor of Entrepreneurship

Laura C. Maxwell Leadership Coach, Accelerate Leadership Center

Simon Mayer Associate Professor of Finance

Elijah Mayfield Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

Justin McElhattan (MBA '05) Founder, Nicely Road Capital

J.R. McGrath Executive Director of Masters Admissions

Jack E. McGrath (MSIA ’61) (Emeritus T) Senior Vice President (retired), Booz, Allen & Hamilton

Colleen M. McMullen Executive Director, Engagement

Leanne Meyer Faculty Lead

Brittany Miller Director of Masters Admissions, Marketing & Communications

Robert Miller Richard M. Cyert and Morris DeGroot Professor of Economics and Statistics; Professor of Economics and Strategy

Rebecca Mintz Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Robert T. Monroe Teaching Professor of Business Technologies

Alan Montgomery Professor of Marketing

David Mortensen Assistant Research Professor

Ben Moseley Professor of Operations Research

D. Carrington Motley Assistant Professor of Organization Theory and Entrepreneurship

Tridas Mukhopadhyay Deloitte Consulting Professor of e-Business; Professor of Business Technologies

Nicholas Muller Lester and Judith Lave Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy

Melissa Murphy Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing

Mildred S. Myers Teaching Professor of Business Management Communication Emerita

Minhyuk Nam Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Michael Nattinger Assistant Professor of Economics

Macarena Navarro Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

David E. Bernal Neira Adjunct Professor of Operations Management and Quantum Computing

Anh Nguyen Associate Professor of Economics, Xerox Junior Faculty Chair

Hoang-Anh Nguyen Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Aidin Niaparast Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Helia Niaparast Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Ivy Norman Senior Academic Advisor of Business Administration Majors and Program Manager; Adjunct Professor of Management

Simon Nyeck Savoir-faire Management and Branding Professor | ESSEC Business School

Erin Mosher O'Brien Senior Academic Advisor of Business Administration Majors and Program Manager

John R. O'Brien Associate Professor of Accounting and Experimental Economics, Emeritus

Rubab Jafry O'Connor Distinguished Service Professor of Management

Jean Oh Assistant Professor of Organizational Theory and Entrepreneurship

Matthew Olczak Executive Director, Computing Services

Brian Olsavsky (MSIA '89) (T) Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Amazon.com

Marc A. Onetto (MSIA ’75) Principal, Leadership From The Mind And The Heart LLC

Aniko Öry Associate Professor of Economics

Jackie Otto Associate Director of Masters Admissions

Yusufcan Ozkan Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Cindy Padnos (MSIA ’80) Founder and Managing Director, Illuminate Ventures

Tejas Sanjaykumar Pagare Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Fiona Paine Assistant Professor of Finance

Stephen Pajewski Senior Academic Advisor of Business Administration Majors and Program Manager

Aranya Pal Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Yichen Pan Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Vrishabh Patil Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Christopher Peace Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Communication

Javier Peña Bajaj Family Chair in Operations Research

Monica Picciotto Academic Project Manager

Evelyn M. Pierce Teaching Professor of Business Management Communication, Emerita

Ronald Placone Associate Teaching Professor of Business Management Communication, Emeritus

Tze-Yang Poon Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Margarita Portnykh Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics and Economics

Nick Pretnar Adjunct Professor of Economics

Tiffany Primrose Senior Academic Coordinator

Kathryn (K.C.) Pringle Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Nick Psaris Adjunct Professor of Finance

Jae Yeon (Jane) Pyo Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Liying Qiu Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Sadiq Salimi Rad Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Bhiksha Raj Professor

Stephen M. Rakas Executive Director, Masters Career Center

Jill Raker Managing Partner, Greenbriar Equity Group, L.P.

R. Ravi Vasantrao Shrinivas Dempo Reflective Chair; Professor of Operations Research and Computer Science

Roopa Ravishankar Ph.D. Student, Tepper School of Business

Max Risch Assistant Professor of Accounting, Shubham Singhal and Jenny Cordina Endowed Career Development Chair

Kristin Risi (Ph.D.) Assistant Dean, Executive Education

James E. Rohr (Emeritus T) Chairman and CEO (retired), The PNC Financial Services Group

Denise Rousseau H. J. Heinz II University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Public Policy, Heinz College and Joint Appointment at Tepper School of Business