CHAPTER 2
COLLABORATION TRENDS
Open innovation in the AI era
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
Collaboration between corporates and startups is accelerating company growth and supercharging innovation, as artificial intelligence reshapes industries at unprecedented speed.
Successful organisations no longer operate solely behind closed doors. Instead they mix both internal and external expertise and resources, embracing new thinking, resources and people within their strategies.
This Open Innovation collaboration strategy relies on both sides effectively working together, with distinct benefits for both sides.
Leveraging external expertise, particularly from more agile startups, helps corporates to accelerate innovation faster and more effectively. Startups, on the other hand, gain access to greater markets, an opportunity to scale, boosted profile and the chance to hone their offer to better match real market needs.
Driven by technology
Unsurprisingly, technology drives the process of collaboration, particularly now with the rapid development of AI where it’s almost impossible for less agile corporates to keep up.
The concept of Open Innovation isn’t new. But the urgency to adopt it, especially in the age of AI, is. Forward-thinking businesses and organisations recognise its potential, and as such it is now the norm rather than the exception in the corporate world.
of large-scale corporates have engaged in startup collaborations
72%
Tobias Studer Andersson, Innovation Director and Group Head of Sopra Steria Scale up
The role of startups
Open Innovation can be defined in several ways, but for the purpose of this report we will think of it as corporate-startup collaborations, that seek to drive innovation by leveraging external ideas, knowledge sources or technology.
Today, more than 7 in 10 (72%) corporates have run startup collaborations, in line with our 2023 Open Innovation Report, but as we see later the race to adopt Open Innovation is accelerating.
The importance of experimentation
Open Innovation projects are not guaranteed victories. Innovation has an inherent element of risk and not all projects succeed. But since our last report we see there has been a significant rise in the success and quality of such collaborations. Today, according to our exclusive research, nearly two-thirds (65%) of businesses report success in their collaborations, up nearly 10 percentage points since 2023 (58%) and we will expect to see this success rate rise further over time.
So, what does it take for corporates to move from hype and experimentation to creating tangible value, and what can they do to help drive future collaboration success?
Success rates
2025
2023
58%
65%
Companies judging their Open Innovation projects a success
of corporates say startups are crucial to their AI strategy
70%
of startups believe corporates view them as crucial to their AI strategy
47%
AI as business priority
In the 2023 report corporates could already see where they needed additional help, predicting that their top three priorities for future collaboration would be sustainability, cybersecurity and AI.
Their predictions were right, although the order of the priorities has reversed with AI becoming the biggest focus of collaboration. In the last two years more than half of corporates (57%) have conducted Open Innovation AI projects, 49% cybersecurity projects and 45% sustainability projects.
Isabelle Pons, AI Programme Chief Operating Officer, Sopra Steria Next
An accelerating pace of change
The data for the 2023 report was gathered just before the launch of ChatGPT. The fact that AI ranked lowest among the top three priorities in the previous survey indicates the rapid pace of change. It also shows that corporates did not expect this speed of technological development and the challenge of keeping up. Now they recognise the accelerating pace of AI development, an area where they may find it difficult to gain value if they fall behind.
The benefit of Open Innovation, especially with regards to AI, is clear. 6 in 10 of corporates say it is highly important to integrate AI into their business, and the speed and flexibility of startups provide just the means for corporates to achieve this.
in 2023
58%
success rate of Open Innovation projects in 2025 up from
65%
Success comes when one has a clear alignment of interests from the start, involve key players and establish solid lines of communication between those people. Key for us was finding the technical people that understood the problem and the development department in these large companies. Good cooperation is a dance and not a fight.
Trond alstadheim
Founder, Techair
The crucial role of startups in corporates’ AI strategies
Corporates value the role of startups more than the startups themselves realise, however. Of those corporates who have already completed AI-collaborations, 70% say startups are crucial to executing their AI strategy, even despite having their own internal AI-capabilities. Yet less than half (47%) of startups think corporates find them crucial for reaching their goals.
Prioritising Open Innovation within a corporate's strategic agenda is crucial for achieving success. The data indicates that the strategic significance of Open Innovation has grown over the years. As corporations continue to engage with Open Innovation, the responsibility progressively shifts from middle management to executive management. The increased attention from top-level management over the past two years may explain the rising success rates of such initiatives.
Open Innovation AI project types corporates completed in the last 2 years
Corporate Open Innovation project types since 2023
57% AI
49% Cybersecurity
45% Sustainability
Generative AI
1%
Predictive AI
1%
Diagnostic AI
1%
Prescriptive AI
1%
Diagnostic AI
Solutions that describe why an occurrence or anomaly occurred within the data. E.g. analysis
Predictive AI
Solutions that predict the future based on what’s happened in the past.
Useful to unlock patterns
Prescriptive AI
Solutions for suggesting the best next steps and helpful for simulations and detailed recommendations
Generative AI
E.g. large language model solutions that apply to any application in which AI is used to create something new
Dominik Lambersy, Co-Founder, TextCortex
Why corporates and startups collaborate
So why are corporates and startups working together?
For corporates, their top three priorities for collaboration are exploring innovative technology and/or business models, fostering innovative and entrepreneurial culture, and optimising internal processes, broadly the same as those of the 2023 report.
However, startups say that corporates tell them they want to collaborate to access specialised expertise, faster innovation and development, and discover cost effective solutions. Meanwhile, for startups, collaborating with corporates enables access to three key areas for growth: access to market, financial capital and human capital
Six out of ten
corporates say it’s vital to integrate AI into their business