In my experience one of the main issues is those who hold the reins often do not have the technical expertise to envision something interesting. Therefore there is no directive to do something interesting, and thusly people do not innovate.
My solution to this is to 1) gain rapport with executive level people and inform them of paradigm shifting opportunities and 2) do the interesting things anyways, when no one is looking... This requires you to master your current position to a point that you make free time within your working hours. Automate, clean up, pay off techdebt until you find it easy to deliver enough to keep managers happy. Then start to work on toy projects to prove out interesting applications of things.
My solution to this is to 1) gain rapport with executive level people and inform them of paradigm shifting opportunities and 2) do the interesting things anyways, when no one is looking... This requires you to master your current position to a point that you make free time within your working hours. Automate, clean up, pay off techdebt until you find it easy to deliver enough to keep managers happy. Then start to work on toy projects to prove out interesting applications of things.