Compassionate AI as an AI-enabled crisis-management capability in China, Singapore and Vietnam organizations: a sociotechnical governance perspective

This study examines how compassionate AI can address people-related crises in Asian business ecosystems shaped by contextual and cultural pressures. It aims to explain how such pressures shape adoption and how governance enables safe, trusted, and operationally sustainable AI-enabled crisis management. Using Sociotechnical Systems theory, the qualitative multiple-case study draws on 38 interviews, three user focus groups, and archival documents. Findings show that low-exposure access, protected disclosure, human escalation, privacy-by-design, and calibrated triage jointly stabilize crisis support. The study reframes compassionate AI as a people-centred crisis-management capability and develops a culturally situated sociotechnical governance model for organizations.