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AI & Data

The AI Capability Gap: 2026 report on AI maturity in innovation teams

Bluemorrow
By Bluemorrow |
7 October 2026

Where do innovation teams really stand with AI, and how far do they want to go? We asked senior foresight, innovation and strategy leaders from large European corporates at the Innovation Roundtable in Frankfurt. They rated their own teams on twelve activities, from trend scouting to workshop design, once for today and once for their ambition.

The short version: they want AI in the process. Few want it in charge.

Key findings from the report

  • AI is a habit, not yet a system.
    In more than half of all activities we measured, AI is an individual habit. Someone has a prompt that works, and a colleague can't reproduce the result. Almost nobody named access to AI tools as the thing holding them back. The report shows the three blockers participants named instead.

  • Few want autonomous AI.
    77% of all stated ambitions sit in just two adjacent levels on a five-level scale. Leaders don't ask for AI that runs on its own. They want a workflow the whole team can repeat.

  • The widest gap is the worst place to start.
    Roadmapping has the widest gap between today and ambition, at +1.6 levels, and starts from one of the lowest points. Trend scouting and market research are furthest along. The report ranks all twelve activities and shows where to begin.

  • AI prepares, people agree.
    More than 35% keep workshop design and facilitation at Level 2 or below, and almost one in five want it fully manual. Where the argument itself is the product, leaders keep AI out.

  • Maturity scores measure confidence.
    In 6 of 12 activities, the lowest and the highest self-rating of the same task sit three full levels apart. Without a shared definition of each level, teams can't compare notes, not even with themselves.

What's inside the full report

  • Today and ambition values for all twelve activities
  • The three blockers, and why none of them is a tool
  • The five conditions that move a team from habit to system, and the order most companies get wrong
  • Four things to start on Monday, not next quarter
  • The benchmark sheet, so you can rate your own team on the same twelve activities and five levels

Download the report

 

FAQ

What is The AI Capability Gap report?

It's a 2026 benchmark report by Bluemorrow on how deeply AI is embedded in foresight, innovation and strategy work. Senior leaders rated twelve activities on a five-level scale, from fully manual to largely autonomous.

Who took part in the benchmark?

Senior foresight, innovation and strategy leaders from large European corporates, at the invite-only Innovation Roundtable in Frankfurt in September 2026. Participants and organizations are anonymized.

Can I benchmark my own team?

Yes. The report includes the benchmark sheet with all twelve activities and five levels. If you'd rather run it live, we bring the sheet and run the session with your team.

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