Day 18 – Supercharged Brainstorming With Generative AI – 30 Day AI Challenge 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Edition of the #30DayAIChallenge. This year, we’ll be focusing on making Generative AI more accessible for all. So follow along and give each challenge a try yourself, plus share your own thoughts and experiments with a community of like-minded learners and tinkerers!*

Week 3’s theme is “School of Bots“, tackling AI and education, with a view on improving our ability to learn, as well as teach others (including our kids!).

Today’s Challenge: Leverage Generative AI For Ideation

Creative ideation and brainstorming are at the heart of innovation and problem-solving. Whether you’re a writer seeking inspiration for your next story, a marketer brainstorming campaign ideas, or a product manager looking for innovative features, the ability to generate creative ideas is invaluable. Today, we’ll explore how Generative AI can enhance this process, offering tools and techniques that make brainstorming more productive and fun.

Getting Started With AI-Enhanced Brainstorming

For beginners, the world of Generative AI offers a plethora of tools designed to spark creativity and offer novel ideas. Here’s how you can get started:

AI Writing Assistants: LLMs / Chatbots like ChatGPT can help you generate ideas, titles, or even full-blown stories based on a simple prompt. Simply state your topic or challenge, and let the AI propose a variety of concepts. Some examples:

1. Overcoming the Blank Page

• Idea Sparring Partner: Engage with your favourite chatbot as if you’re having a conversation with a colleague. Ask open-ended questions, pose challenges, and the chatbot will respond with perspectives or suggestions to jumpstart your thinking. Gen AI can provide a sounding board without the judgment present in human interactions.
• Prompt Generators: Gen AI tools can create tailored prompts or scenarios. They can be specific (“Brainstorm marketing tagline ideas for our new eco-friendly cleaning product”) or abstract (“Generate a list of problems faced by a time traveler in ancient Rome”) to spark novel ideas.

Here’s an old example from last year, where I started the process by ideating about new sustainable hotel concepts:

Day 22 of 30 Day AI Challenge – From Hotel Concept to Visual Identity in 15 minutes

You can use ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini or others for open-ended brainstorming discussions and prompt generation. Tools like Jasper.ai are focused on generating marketing copy, but can be repurposed for brainstorming taglines and product concepts too. Sudowrite is built as a writing partner…great if you’re working on that novel you always wanted to publish!

2. Exploring Unconventional Angles

• “What if?” Scenarios: Feed the chatbot hypothetical situations or constraints. (“What if our product had a voice personality, how would it talk?”, “What if we could only use recycled materials?”). It will help you reframe the problem and think outside the box.
• Role Reversal: Have the chatbot take on the role of your customer, competitor, a historical figure, or even an inanimate object. This helps gain fresh perspectives on your challenge.
• Random Word/Image Generators: Sometimes a random stimulus can help break mental blocks. Have the AI provide random words or images to incorporate into your thinking and spark unexpected connections.

Again, most leading chatbots will do a good job here…or you can also explore new and emerging specialized tools. For example, InferKit allows you to input text and then ask “What if” questions or set hypothetical constraints to get AI-generated responses.

3. Refining and Expanding Ideas

• Challenging Assumptions: Ask the chatbot to play devil’s advocate. Have it find potential flaws, weaknesses, or counterarguments in your ideas. This strengthens your concepts as you address those points.
• Elaboration: Feed your initial ideas into the chatbot and ask it to expand on them, add variations, or suggest similar yet distinct concepts.
• Combining Concepts: Use a chatbot to explore merging different ideas or features to find potentially innovative hybrid solutions.

For example, Rytr is an AI writing tool with a focus on various content formats. Good for expanding upon ideas, exploring variations and alternative phrasing. Another example is AnyWord.

4. Visual Ideation Assistance

• Image Generation (DALL-E, Midjourney, etc): Use descriptive text prompts to have the AI generate visuals relevant to your brainstorming session. This can help visualize concepts, inspire mood boards, or reveal new aesthetic directions. This is particularly useful for visualizing concepts or products that don’t yet exist.
• Mind Mapping Tools: Some platforms support AI-assisted mind mapping. The AI can suggest connections, find related topics, or help restructure your mind map for clarity…or perhaps even expand it in directions you might not have considered.

For example, here I used a custom GPT (on ChatGPT) called Diagrams to create a mindmap of Martin Luther King Jr. ideas:

5. Streamlining the Process

• Note-taking and Organization: Some chatbots can be instructed to take notes, categorize your ideas, and even produce summaries of your brainstorming session. This frees you to focus on idea generation.
• Reminders and Follow-ups: Set reminders for the AI to nudge you with follow-up questions on a past idea after a set period, ensuring promising thoughts aren’t forgotten.

You’ll find some great examples of tools that can help with voice transcription and note taking in one of our previous challenges:

Day 9 – Make Virtual Calls and Meetings More Productive – 30 Day AI Challenge 2024

Tools Beyond Basic AI Chatbots:

• Text-to-X Generators: Tools and custom GPTs exist that turn ideas into code snippets, business plans, presentation outlines, etc. This can accelerate the journey from ideation to prototyping.
• Specialized AI: Look for niche tools designed for specific tasks (some examples provided above) – some AI models are tailored for marketing copywriting, product naming, or even storyline generation.

Here’s a great example of taking a simple idea and using custom GPTs, automating the process of creating Powerpoints and Videos easily:

AI Life Hacks – Creating PowerPoint Presentations and Videos in a snap using Custom GPTs

Important Notes:

• Experiment and iterate: Explore the wide range of AI tools, and see how they resonate with your ideation style.
• Human Element: AI is fantastic at generating variations, but critical thinking and judgment still lie in your hands. The AI is a collaborator, not a replacement for human creativity.
• Brainstorming On The Fly: If you’re the kind of person who thinks and ideates better on their feet, you should try tapping into the audio dialogue capabilities of popular chatbots like ChatGPT and Pi on your phone…this way you can have a fun natural language brainstorming session on the go!

Some Mini Challenges To Try Out Yourself

Scenario 1: Meal Planning Predicament

• Problem: You’re tired of eating the same things, need healthy meal ideas on a budget, or have dietary restrictions.
• AI Tools:
  • Recipe generator sites (like SuperCook, MyFridgeFood) where you input available ingredients and get recipe suggestions.
  • ChatGPT or your preferred AI chatbot for generating meal plans based on preferences (“Generate a week’s worth of vegetarian lunch ideas under 300 calories.”).
  • Image generators like DALL-E for visuals based on “healthy and colorful lunch bowls” for inspiration.

Scenario 2: Weekend Boredom Buster

• Problem: Stuck in a rut for weekend activities, want something new in your local area, or need ideas suitable for diverse interests (ex: family with kids, solo traveler).
• AI Tools:
  • Hyper-local event finders – some use AI to curate niche events beyond big ticket sites. Given Google’s extensive network, you can also give Google Gemini a shot as it can access Maps & Web results.
  • ChatGPT or your preferred AI chatbot for tailored ideas or unusual challenges (“Fun activities near me for a family with a toddler this weekend.” or “Design a scavenger hunt around my neighborhood.”).

Scenario 3: Wardrobe Refresh

• Problem: Closet full but nothing feels right, want to elevate your style, shopping sustainably on a budget.
• AI Tools:
  • Try giving ChatGPT (paid version) images of your clothes to analyze your existing wardrobe, suggest pairings, and offer shopping ideas based on your look.
  • Text-to-Image generators to visualize concepts (“Bohemian maxi dress made from recycled materials”) before searching for similar items.
  • ChatGPT or your preferred AI chatbot for brainstorming wardrobe staples (“What are 5 timeless pieces that work with my existing jeans and sneakers?”).

Advanced Strategies for AI-Driven Ideation

For those already familiar with these tools, taking your brainstorming sessions to the next level involves a blend of creativity and technology:

1. Iterative Deepening: Use the initial ideas generated by AI as prompts for deeper exploration. Each round of questioning can yield more refined and creative outputs.
2. Hybrid Brainstorming: Combine the outputs from different AI tools. For example, start with a text-based idea generator and then feed the output into an image generator. This cross-pollination of AI capabilities can yield rich, multifaceted ideas.
3. Semantic Expansion: Use AI to explore related concepts, synonyms, and tangentially related ideas. This can broaden the scope of brainstorming, bringing in fresh perspectives.

Advanced users should focus on fine-tuning prompts and leveraging the unique strengths of different AI tools for comprehensive brainstorming sessions.

Wrap Up

Generative AI is transforming the art of (non-judgemental) brainstorming, making it possible to explore ideas beyond the conventional boundaries of human creativity. As these technologies evolve, we can anticipate even more sophisticated tools that understand context better, offer more nuanced suggestions, and seamlessly integrate into our creative processes. The potential for these AI tools to act as catalysts for innovation and creativity is immense. The challenge, and indeed the opportunity, lies in learning to harness these capabilities to complement and enhance our inherent creativity.

If you give any of these tools or challenges a try, leave a comment and share your experience! If you’re using other platforms to post, please tag your Facebook, Twitter / X or LinkedIn post with #30DayAIChallenge so others can find it too.

Till tomorrow…

*Please note: Participation in the 30 Day AI Challenge is at your own discretion and responsibility. Always ensure that no sensitive personal information, confidential, or proprietary company data is shared. Adhere to all applicable local laws and company policies. Enjoy exploring AI responsibly!