The adoption of artificial intelligence and customer value creation in emerging market telecommunications industry

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the sources of business value. However, extant literature places little emphasis on the use of AI in emerging markets and has minimal focus on the telecommunications industry. In response, this research explores the nature of AI adoption and customer value creation in emerging market telecommunications firms. Based on the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework, the enablers, obstacles and outcomes of AI adoption and customer value creation are explored for in-depth insights. Primary data was gathered through 12 semi-structured interviews with industry decisionmakers and consultants. The participants work for organisations in three emerging market economies, allowing for a fair comparison across different markets and organisations. The approach used to analyse the primary data was thematic analysis. Secondary data was retrieved from internet searches for telecommunications industry reports and company annual integrated reports to retrieve any customer benefits and trends regarding AI adoption. The research findings highlight similarities to the literature on the TOE framework and identify new enablers, obstacles, and outcomes specific to the emerging market telecommunications industry. This research contributes to the extant theoretical literature on AI adoption by exploring the TOE framework in this context. Furthermore, new insights on customer value creation were developed from decision-makers’ perceptions of the emerging market telecommunications industry. Moreover, the study provides a conceptual framework for AI adoption's enablers, obstacles and outcomes for customer value creation in emerging market telecommunications firms. Finally, the study provides practical recommendations to managers regarding strategic considerations to guide the successful adoption of AI in emerging market telecommunications. The study's limitations include covering only some emerging market telecommunications and looking at customer value creation as the business value for AI adoption when AI adoption can provide other business value.