Cited by 772Artificial Intelligence ApplicationsImpact of AI and Big Data on Business and SocietyInformation Technology Governance and Strategy

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 70 of the 71 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 82 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Ready or not, AI comes—an interview study of organizational AI readiness factors

Open access
Jöhnk, Jan, Weißert, Malte, Wyrtki, Katrin·2021·Business & Information Systems Engineering

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers organizations much potential. Considering the manifold application areas, AI’s inherent complexity, and new organizational necessities, companies encounter pitfalls when adopting AI. An informed decision regarding an organization’s readiness increases the probability of successful AI adoption and is important to successfully leverage AI’s business value. Thus, companies need to assess whether their assets, capabilities, and commitment are ready for the individual AI adoption purpose. Research on AI readiness and AI adoption is still in its infancy. Consequently, researchers and practitioners lack guidance on the adoption of AI. The paper presents five categories of AI readiness factors and their illustrative actionable indicators. The AI readiness factors are deduced from an in-depth interview study with 25 AI experts and triangulated with both scientific and practitioner literature. Thus, the paper provides a sound set of organizational AI readiness factors, derives corresponding indicators for AI readiness assessments, and discusses the general implications for AI adoption. This is a first step toward conceptualizing relevant organizational AI readiness factors and guiding purposeful decisions in the entire AI adoption process for both research and practice.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This paper conceptualizes organizational AI readiness through an interview study with 25 AI experts, yielding five categories, 18 readiness factors, and 58 illustrative indicators. It argues that AI readiness is not merely a precursor to AI adoption but an integral, context- and purpose-specific element that mutually reinforces adoption across the process.

Key findings

  • The study identifies five AI readiness categories: strategic alignment, resources, knowledge, culture, and data, comprising 18 factors and 58 illustrative indicators.
  • Strategic alignment includes AI-business potentials, customer AI readiness, top management support, AI-process fit, and data-driven decision-making; resources include financial budget, personnel, and IT infrastructure; knowledge includes AI awareness, upskilling, and AI ethics; culture includes innovativeness, collaborative work, and change management; data includes data availability, data quality, data accessibility, and data flow.
  • The authors argue that AI readiness and AI adoption are distinct yet highly interdependent and mutually reinforcing, requiring continuous assessment rather than a one-time readiness check.
  • AI’s nature as a general-purpose technology means readiness must be both context-specific and purpose-specific, depending on the organization’s intended AI adoption purpose.

Methods

  • Qualitative in-depth interview study with 25 AI experts (E01–E25), sampled purposively from the authors’ professional network; data collection stopped after 25 interviews because no significant new topics emerged.
  • Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed from 1,385 interview minutes; analysis used open and axial coding in MAXQDA, with coding rounds producing 492 codes in 6 categories, then 895 codes in 39 categories and 87 subcategories, then 35 AI readiness factors in 12 categories, narrowed to 23 organizational factors in 8 categories, and finally 18 factors in 5 categories.
  • Findings were triangulated with scientific and practitioner literature, and indicators were developed and validated through a card-sorting procedure in an AI-related researchers’ focus group.

Limitations

  • The paper states that the purposive cross-industry interview sample primarily reflects the perspectives of experts in management positions; future research could sample across job levels and use in-depth case studies.
  • The paper states that it does not elucidate prioritization or weighting of factors and indicators relative to overarching AI adoption purpose and organizational contingencies; future work should validate the factors and indicators and examine how they influence AI adoption success.
  • The paper states that comparing organizational readiness factors across multiple technologies lies beyond its scope; an evident limitation is that the 58 indicators are self-developed and presented as a starting point for future validation rather than as empirically validated assessment scales.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s12599-020-00676-7

Cites

70 of 70 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

63 Not checked yet · 30 Own interpretation · 15 Own result · 14 No basis given · 8 Own method

Verify all 82 references — free account

Show all 40 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 69
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 42
90 of 90
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There is no structured conceptualization of readiness for technology on the organizational perspective.

    “However, to the best of our knowledge, there is so far no structured conceptualization of readiness for technology on the organizational perspective.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Research remains vague as to where organizations should address AI-specific factors in the adoption process and what implications arise for continued use.

    “Further, research remains vague as to where organizations should address these AI-specific factors in the adoption process and what implications arise for the continued use.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    It is unclear which factors are relevant for the organizational adoption challenges.

    “However, it is unclear which factors are relevant for the organizational adoption challenges.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    AI is a general-purpose technology (GPT) with a broad variety of application scenarios.

    “However, owing to AI's characteristics as GPT, AI adoption differentiates from previously discussed technology adoption.”
    “Considering AI's nature as a GPT, we posit two important perspectives on the AI readiness factors.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The TOE framework is an established construct of organizational adoption literature suitable for conceptualizing AI readiness from an organizational perspective.

    “We build on the TOE framework, an established construct of organizational adoption literature, to conceptualize AI readiness from an organizational perspective.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The interview sample of 25 AI experts is sufficient to identify and conceptualize organizational AI readiness factors.

    “We combined insights from interviews with 25 AI experts with findings from scientific and practitioner literature to compile 18 AI readiness factors and 58 illustrative indicators in five categories.”
6 of 6

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Citations

Cites

Show all 71 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Brynjolfsson E, McAfee A (2017) The business of artificial intelligence: What it can – and cannot – do for your organization. Harvard business review. https://starlab-alliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-Business-of-Artificial-Intelligence.pdf. Accessed 12 Mar 2020
  2. Fishbein M, Ajzen I (1975) Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley series in social psychology. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Boston
  3. Fountaine T, McCarthy B, Saleh T (2019) Building the AI-powered organization. Harv Bus Rev 97:62–73
  4. Pumplun L, Tauchert C, and Heidt M (2019) A new organizational chassis for artificial intelligence – exploring organizational readiness factors. In: ECIS 2019 Proceedings, Stockholm-Uppsala

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Metadata

Authors
Jöhnk, J., Weißert, M., & Wyrtki, K.
Affiliations
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (DE)
  • University of Bayreuth (DE)
Corresponding author
  • Jöhnk, Jan
  • Weißert, Malte
  • Wyrtki, Katrin
Venue
Business & Information Systems Engineering
Published
2020-12-22
Volume
63
Issue
1
Pages
5-20
ISSN
  • 1867-0202 (ISSN-L)
  • 2363-7005
OpenAlex
W3100511078
Cited by
637
References
71
Citations by year
2026: 233 · 2025: 155 · 2024: 114 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 1
FWCI
13.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Business & Information Systems Engineering (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Journal of the Association for Information Systems (submittedVersion)
  • Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • ERef Bayreuth (University of Bayreuth) (submittedVersion)
  • Publikationsdatenbank der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Fraunhofer-Publica (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Artificial Intelligence Applications
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Impact of AI and Big Data on Business and Society
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Information Technology Governance and Strategy
Keywords
artificial intelligence adoption, AI readiness assessment, organizational capabilities

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