Addressing Value Tensions in Collaborative Innovation: A Generative AI-Powered Serious Game

Collaborative innovation is crucial for addressing grand challenges like climate change and inequality, yet it frequently struggles due to conflicting stakeholder priorities and underlying value tensions. Our study introduces an AI-powered serious game that applies responsible research and innovation principles to encourage reflexivity, anticipation, and value deliberation among stakeholders. Using a narrative-driven and interactive framework, participants engage with generative AI to uncover hidden values, resolve tensions, and align their priorities toward responsible innovation. The game was developed through a Design Science Research methodology, undergoing iterative testing with diverse stakeholder groups. Findings indicate that the game successfully facilitate deliberation by integrating three key components: AI-driven feedback, immersive narratives, and customizable scenarios. Furthermore, three main design criteria, enhanced user experience, implementation flexibility, and effective prompt engineering, were identified as essential for the game’s usability and impact. The game's effectiveness in promoting meaningful engagement highlights its potential for widespread application in innovation labs, policy design, educational settings, and research. Ultimately, we offer a practical tool to operationalize responsible research and innovation principles in multi-stakeholder contexts, addressing the challenge of aligning values when tackling wicked societal issues.