Conceptualizing AI-driven Knowledge Services for a Circular Economy

The concept of circular economy aims to enhance sustainability by decoupling value creation from resource consumption. Despite the increasing interest of research and society in the circular economy, its diffusion among industrial organizations remains insufficient due to the need for systemic changes involving both suppliers and customers. To address this, incumbent organizations can offer knowledge-intensive services that transform value-creation processes and help industrial organizations adopt circular business models. These services support decision-makers by processing data using artificial intelligence techniques and involving human experts. Against this background, this paper presents a case study from the corrugated cardboard industry, proposing an approach for fostering industry-wide adoption of circular business models. The approach is based on providing services through a domain-specific innovation platform. This platform combines artificial intelligence capabilities and the human expertise of the case firm to assist industrial organizations in their circular transition.