Adaptive AI systems and organizational resilience: a multi-level analysis of digital mindset…

This paper examines how adaptive AI systems influence organizational resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically through the mediating role of the digital mindset and decision-making autonomy. Based on dynamic capabilities theory, the paper develops an innovative conceptual framework that recognizes adaptive AI systems within an integrated technological system that supports the organization’s sensing and response capacities during a crisis. Using the Flash Eurobarometer 486 survey conducted in April and May 2020, this study collected data from 12,108 SMEs across 27 European Union member states. The direct effect, mediated relationship, and cross-level interaction strategies employed hierarchical linear models and bootstrap-mediated models with 5,000 iterations. The empirical evidence reveals a significant positive relationship between AI systems and organizational resilience, reducing the odds by 2.342 times (p<0.001) and explaining large incremental variance over the classical organizational characteristics. Digital mindset demonstrated a stronger mediating effect (indirect effect β = 0.17, 95% CI [0.12, 0.24]) compared to decision-making autonomy (indirect effect β = 0.11, 95% CI [0.06, 0.18]). The organizational path-levels and moderations provide critical contextual dimensions, reflected in industry digital intensity, γ=0.15, p<0.05, and national digital infrastructure,γ=0.22, p<0.01. Based on dynamic capability theory, this paper contributes by extending the concept of AI systems to an organizational meta-capability, signposting critical leave-taking measures and implications for managers and policymakers in coping with adverse, turbulence-prone conditions during digitalization within the organization.