The challenge
AGC is a global glass and materials manufacturer that wanted to systematically identify innovation opportunities across its core business units. Each unit needed to track the technology that matters to it and judge how ready that technology is, without waiting on a central research cycle.
Generic scoring did not fit: the readiness question is different for each unit's strategic context, and the answer had to be actionable inside AGC's existing innovation workflow.
What we did
AGC engaged Envisioning to deploy a multi-model AI scanning approach with parallel language models, proprietary deduplication, and a custom multi-tier readiness assessment framework tailored to each business unit.
- Designed and deployed a custom AI-powered signals radar across multiple business units, each with dedicated scans and assessments.
- Developed a three-dimensional readiness assessment framework, replacing generic scoring with domain-specific indicators.
- Delivered structured signal outputs with fact-checking verification scores across a six-month innovation campaign.
- Facilitated alignment workshops and customisation sessions with R&D and business development teams — defining unit-specific categories, priorities and exclusion criteria so outputs landed directly in AGC's innovation process.
- Proposed follow-on stakeholder ecosystem visualisation and customer readiness mapping.
What changed
- Adopted across multiple business units, with cross-portfolio analysis revealing shared strategic opportunities.
- Accelerated ideation cycles, compressing technology assessment timelines.
- Informed executive-level strategy through structured business-unit maturity rankings and cross-unit synergy analysis.
- Renewed into a multi-phase engagement, evolving from a pilot radar into ongoing foresight infrastructure integrating technology scanning, ecosystem mapping and customer readiness frameworks.
