Adopting Artificial Intelligence for Competitive Advantage: Insights from Industry Practitioners

This study explores the adoption of artificial intelligence as a strategic pathway to achieving and sustaining competitive advantage, drawing on in-depth qualitative insights from industry practitioners. As artificial intelligence increasingly reshapes business environments, organizations are under growing pressure to understand not only its technical potential but also its strategic and organizational implications. This research adopted a qualitative, interpretive approach to capture practitioners’ lived experiences, perceptions, and sensemaking related to artificial intelligence adoption across diverse industries, including manufacturing, services, retail, and technology-driven sectors. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with professionals directly involved in artificial intelligence initiatives, enabling a rich exploration of motivations, implementation processes, challenges, and perceived outcomes. The findings reveal that artificial intelligence adoption was widely perceived as a strategic necessity rather than a discretionary innovation. Practitioners emphasized that competitive advantage emerged when artificial intelligence initiatives were closely aligned with organizational strategy, supported by leadership commitment, and embedded into everyday decision-making processes. Rather than replacing human expertise, artificial intelligence was viewed as augmenting managerial judgment by enhancing analytical depth, speed, and confidence, particularly in complex and uncertain contexts. The study further highlights that the competitive benefits of artificial intelligence unfolded over time, with early gains centered on operational efficiency and later advantages linked to improved decision quality, innovation, and customer-centric value creation. Importantly, the research underscores that artificial intelligence adoption is as much a human and organizational challenge as it is a technological one. Issues such as resistance to change, skills gaps, data quality, and trust in AI outputs shaped adoption trajectories and influenced competitive outcomes. Organizations that invested in learning, cultural openness, and change management were better positioned to translate artificial intelligence investments into sustained competitive advantage. By foregrounding practitioner perspectives, this study contributes a human-centered understanding of artificial intelligence adoption and offers practical insights for organizations seeking to leverage AI as a dynamic and adaptive source of competitive advantage in an increasingly data-driven economy.