Prioritising readiness factors for artificial intelligence-enabled green trade adoption among export-capable Korean small and medium-sized enterprises

This study identifies and prioritises readiness factors for small and medium-sized enterprises’ adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled green trade. Focusing on export-capable Korean SMEs, it develops a literature-derived AHP framework covering trade digital infrastructure and data, transport and logistics AI deployment, green trade finance, regulatory governance, and SME adoption capability. Expert-based pairwise comparisons were used to derive local and global priority weights, while consistency ratios, sensitivity analysis, and a descriptive subgroup comparison were used to assess result reliability. The findings indicate that Trade Digital Infrastructure and Data is the highest-priority main criterion, followed by Transport and Logistics AI Deployment. At the sub-criteria level, Data Interoperability Infrastructure ranked first, followed by AI-Enabled Trade Documentation Automation, Financial Support for AI Adoption, and AI-Driven Load Factor and Demand Forecast Optimisation. The results suggest that AI-enabled green trade readiness is perceived primarily as a practical data and operational capability issue.