Chalmers students are collaborating with Ikea for the second year in a row to tackle real-life business challenges using digital technology and artificial intelligence.
In the course "Leading in a digital world," third-year Industrial engineering and management bachelor's students are working with the global furniture giant to develop new solutions to attract young talent and upskill their workforce.
“The Ikea challenge enables students to develop not only a digital mindset, problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking skills but also their innovation skills as they need to develop and pitch an innovation to Ikea managers in their groups as part of the course”, says Robin Teigland who is teaching the course.
Setting up the class in this way gives the students a unique chance to learn by hands-on doing.
“We are giving the students the opportunity to apply their in-class learning on digital technologies and digitalization to Ikea's real-life needs”, she continues.
Students looking for solutions
Ikea's Supply Chain Development department has tasked the students with exploring how to use AI technology such as OpenAI's GPT-3 to improve business development and attract new employees.
The students formed small groups and worked on ideas based on Ikea’s problem formulations, which are then pitched to their employees for feedback.
"We get challenged by students looking at our dilemmas with fresh eyes and taking different approaches," says Tomas Francl, people, and culture leader at Supply Chain Development at Ikea.
"Together we find better ways, and it gives great opportunities. We would like to be attractive to young talents and stay relevant for many people. And that includes our young generations."
The Ikea AI-helper
The students' project ideas range from extracting patterns from large amounts of data from customer reviews to a service that connects Ikea employees globally.
One group's idea is an AI helper that builds on existing AI technology in Ikea’s catalogue to suggest furniture that fits a customer's taste and a digital copy of their home.
"We envision something similar to Spotify's music recommendation service, but for furniture," says Alexander Säll, one of the students in the group.
"It definitely feels much more real in this course, working so closely with Ikea instead of us working with something fictitious," says student Andreas Quise. "We get feedback from people in the field who have the experience to know which one of our ideas can possibly work and which cannot."
Engaging ideas
Robin Teigland found the creative ideas and innovations of her students impressive.
”Especially considering the course is only two months long. The students’ digital innovations covered a wide range of ideas that were innovative, inspiring, and engaging”.
The representatives from Ikea also praised the students' work, saying,
"We appreciate their engagement, enthusiasm, and high level of competence. It is great to work on the Ikea business cases together. We enjoyed the dialogue during the sessions exchanging different perspectives. They gave us a lot of energy and inspiration."
The project winners will be announced in April, and Ikea plans to take the best ideas forward to develop real-world solutions. For young professionals interested in the intersection of technology and business, this is an inspiring example of how innovative ideas and collaboration can drive real change.