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This study examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption on breakthrough innovation in Chinese listed enterprises between 2007 and 2023. The results show that the AI adoption significantly improves an enterprises’ ability to achieve breakthrough innovation. Moreover, mechanism analysis demonstrates that AI adoption promotes breakthrough innovation by increasing knowledge diversity, overcoming organizational inertia and improving resource allocation efficiency. Furthermore, absorptive capacity is crucial in bolstering AI adoption’s impact on breakthrough innovation. A heterogeneity analysis reveals that state-owned enterprises, enterprises in highly competitive industries and more market-oriented regions see a stronger empowering effect in leveraging AI for breakthrough innovation. Additionally, compared with incremental innovation, AI adoption exerts a stronger positive effect on breakthrough innovation. The findings deepen our understanding of the pathways through which AI fosters breakthrough innovation and has practical implications for enterprises seeking to leverage AI to make technological progress.
Li et al. (Fri,) studied this question.