Abductive Reasoning in New Venture Ideas

Understanding how new venture ideas emerge and how this process can be augmented by the wealth of data and computing power of artificial intelligence (AI) is critical. Here, we explicate how abduction operates in relation to the generation of new venture ideas and how this might be augmented in a world of AI. Compared to deduction and induction, abduction is a more useful form of reasoning and innovative abduction generates more innovative new venture ideas than explanatory abduction. We further posit that AI will become an enabler for more rapid generation of high quality and more numerous new venture ideas.