New advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed the business environment on a significant scale. The benefits of these innovations have influenced their adoption and deployment in many organizations. Acceptance and successful implementation of these new ideas is dependent of many factors which are specific to an organization. Organizational culture is one of the major variables that have a substantial influence on the decision to adopt AI applications (Ober, 2020). This essay explains how a strong culture can facilitate the deployment of AI.
There are several assumptions, beliefs, and values defining a robust organizational culture that can drive successful adoption of AI projects. First, strong organizational cultures are characterized by leaders who are open to new ideas, innovations, and taking risks. Initially, AI is often seen as a threat, mainly due to its disruption (Alsheibani et al., 2018). Having business leaders and managers who have a good understanding of the importance and benefits of this innovation can foster trust and acceptance within the workplace. Besides, effective managers would align AI goals and strategy with organizational vision, mission, values, and priorities, and empower employees to contribute to this course. They also select and prioritize projects, establish realistic expectations, and know the resources required to facilitate AI adoption and diffusion throughout the organization. Such leadership would inspire the trust and confidence needed to adopt and absorb AI.
Second, a positive organizational culture tends to attract and keep excellent talents who can push for successful adoption and implementation of emerging technologies. Smooth deployment of emerging innovations often requires sophisticated skills, thus having employees with relevant expertise would influence the extent of AI acceptance and penetration (Ober, 2020). However, the ability to attract and retain such talents is unevenly distributed between organizations, industries, and economies. Firms with strong corporate values enjoy high access to a relevant skilled workforce which is critical to AI deployment.
Third, digital maturity influences the decision to adopt emerging innovations. Successful adoption and diffusion of these ideas are dependent heavily on the existing technological infrastructure and systems (Alsheibani et al., 2018). In this context, organizations that have previously embraced and integrated cloud system and web 2.0 technologies exhibit a higher likelihood of approving and executing AI projects. As a result, having relevant systems and applications that complement and support emerging innovations could lead to a natural readiness for AI adoption and deployment.
Finally, firm-level competition is a strong facilitator of AI adoption. Competitive employers strive to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, and AI is a significant source of this (Horowitz, 2018). The level of rivalry within a market has a considerable impact on AI acceptance because firms endeavor to become early adopters to become more competitive. Laggard firms fail to enjoy the disproportionate benefits of early adoption (Alsheibani et al., 2018). Thus, market competition serves as an incentive to embrace AI applications.
In conclusion, new and emerging technologies such as AI present numerous sources of competitive advantage to organization. However, acceptance and successful deployment of these innovations depend on the level of a firm’s readiness. A strong culture is a primary element of organizational readiness and it promotes the adoption and penetration of these inventions in the workplace.
References
Alsheibani, S., Cheung, Y., & Messom, C. (2018). Artificial intelligence adoption: AI-readiness at firm-level. PACIS 2018 Proceedings, 37.
Horowitz, M. C. (2018). Artificial intelligence, international competition, and the balance of power. Texas national security review, 1(3).
Ober, J. (2020). Innovation Adoption: Empirical analysis on the example of selected factors of Organizational culture in the IT industry in Poland. Sustainability, 12(20), 8630.