Beyond the AI Pilot: Three Trends R&D Leaders Must Know to Prepare for 2026
- Resource Type
- Audio Presentation/Podcast
- Publish Date
- 11/20/2025
- Author
- Innovation Research Interchange
- Topics
- Innovation, R&D, Risk Management
- Associated Event
- Webinar: Beyond the AI Pilot: Three Trends R&D Leaders Must Know to Prepare for 2026
Thought Leader Interview with Sean Ammirati
November 2025
In this episode, host Lee Green talks with Sean Ammirati of Growth Signals about three trends R&D leaders should prepare for in 2026: proof-of-work artifacts that both humans and agents can use, the AI collaboration stack, and agentic workflows (including co-scientist systems). They discuss moving beyond pilots to deliver real value, strategies for workforce adoption and culture change, and practical ways to evaluate and scale AI-driven innovation within R&D.
Sean Ammirati is the CEO & Co-Founder of Growth Signals, an early-stage startup building an AI-Informed Enterprise Strategy Platform to accelerate front-end innovation for companies. The platform uses generative AI to drive collaboration, refine ideas with new evidence and fast-track the path from discovery to development, turning innovation into revenue-generating ventures. In addition to his role at Growth Signals, Sean serves as a Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He is also the Co-Founder of the Carnegie Mellon Corporate Startup Lab (CSL), a Swartz Center initiative that has conducted research and developed tools to help companies better adapt and integrate entrepreneurial best practices into their own innovation processes. Beyond academia and startups, Sean is a Partner at Birchmere Ventures, where he focuses on SaaS and AI investments. His investments include: NoWait (acquired by Yelp), umano (acquired by Dropbox), Altru (acquired by ICIMS), JazzHR (acquired by Jobvite), Healthie, Crystal, LegalSifter and The Zebra. Sean completed his first book The Science of Growth in April of 2016, which was released by St Martin’s Press and was subsequently translated and published in Korean and Mandarin.