Conceptualizing a Capability-Based View of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in a BPM Context

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are creating new opportunities for organizations to improve their performance; however, as with other technologies, many of them have difficulties leveraging AI technologies and realizing performance gains. Research on the business value of information technology (IT) suggests that the adoption of AI should improve organizational performance, though indirectly, through improved business processes and other mediators, but research so far has not extensively empirically investigated the way AI creates business value. The paper proposes a capability-based view of AI adoption based on the conception that, with the adoption of AI, an organization develops AI-enabled capabilities – abilities to mobilize AI resources to effectively exploit, create, extend, or modify its resource base. This leads to higher organizational performance through cognitive process automation, innovation, and organizational learning. The first step in this research is to clarify the AI adoption construct. The goal of the paper is thus to provide a conceptual definition, and deeper insights into the components of the AI adoption construct at the organizational level.