On Feb 13, Scott Kirsner hosted Jan Fischer and me for a LinkedIn Live on agentic AI and innovation management. 48 people showed up. Three of them asked questions that cracked open the real conversation. Here’s how each question branched into something none of us expected.
InnoLead LinkedIn Live · Feb 13, 2026 · Watch the full replay
Should innovation and transformation be managed separately?
The Question
Kevin Darbelnet
“How do you see innovation management intersecting with transformation management? Should they be managed separately or is it all the same now?”
Jan Fischer
“Kevin definitely has a point. Transformation teams use innovation platforms to change the culture. Same tools, same methods. Just different content.”
Brandon Klein
Governance councils “spin up” and slow AI down. The innovators find another way. Companies that don’t embrace them? Not going to last very long.
Watch at 20:41 The Reframe
Scott Kirsner
“Who are the people in charge as we make this transformation? Innovation teams bring in new tools. CIOs bring in Copilot or ChatGPT and then stop. Who’s actually driving this?“
Brandon Klein
“No one is in charge yet. Aren’t we still too new in this agentic world?”
Jan Fischer
“Everyone wants it. Everyone plays around with it. But the playground is not yet defined.”
Watch at 21:10 Where It Lands
Jan + Brandon
Jan: “AI will democratize innovation. The blue collar worker narrows materials to a shortlist of 3, then goes to the engineer.”
Brandon: “Turn on a Slack agent to find the entrepreneur getting blocked. Call them. Ask how you can help. Any company can do this right now.“
Is AI a force multiplier or a threat?
The Question
Hugh Evans (via comments)
“To me AI is a force multiplier for innovation, doing the right things well, but also appears to be a threat that I’m very unsure about.”
Jan Fischer
“The governance layer is what’s required. You have to make sure AI works in your interest and you understand how agents work together. Once that’s proven and signed off, then you can trust the outcome.”
Brandon Klein
“What if you’re approaching that question wrong? Did you test it with your AI counterpart first so it would challenge you to ask a better question?”
Watch at 32:36 Where It Lands
Brandon Klein
“It shifts the conversation and puts humans completely in charge. We won’t worry about future hypotheticals. We’ll have simulated all this under human control by asking the right questions using AI intelligence along the way.”
Garbage in, garbage out. Do humans always need to be in the loop?
The Question
Stephanie Binger (via comments)
“Garbage in, garbage out. Humans are still prompting. Humans still need to ask the right questions. Humans still need to review the outputs. Humans still need to be part of the process.“
Jan Fischer
“We will have best practices for agents that we can largely apply for certain use cases. Could be an interesting topic: a catalog of best practice AI agents that support innovation processes.”
Brandon Klein
“I’m the most guilty of garbage in, garbage out. So there’s an agent that watches all my work and asks what I’m actually trying to get at. I don’t do garbage in. I’m not allowed to do garbage out.“
Watch at 39:08 Where It Lands
Jan + Brandon
Jan envisions a standardized catalog of trusted agents for innovation tasks. Brandon already built one for himself: an agent that won’t let him publish bad stats. Two paths to the same answer. Build the guardrails into the agents themselves.
Watch the full 48-minute replay · Questions? brandon@collaboration.ai
