Demystifying AI Adoption - Beyond the Hype

Sammanfattning: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to have a fundamental impact on the way we do business and become a significant source of value to various industries. However, few companies have an AI strategy in place, and telecom companies, which are frontrunners within AI adoption, state that it is the most overhyped emerging technology. On the basis of these contradictions, this qualitative study aims to examine and provide insights on the rationale behind why telecom companies in Sweden decide to adopt AI. Through a multiple case study approach, nine in-depth interviews, with Telia, Telenor and Tele2, were conducted. This was followed by an analysis based on an integrated framework, combining the Technology-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) framework and the Task-Technology-Fit (TTF) framework. The findings revealed three levels of influence for the adoption-decision, including decisive, influential, and uninfluential factors. The decisive factors are: perceived compatibility, perceived relative advantage, customer satisfaction, data utilization, and competitive advantage. The influential factors are: top management support, data availability, task complexity, presence of champions, financial strength, AI hype, and competitive pressure. Finally, the uninfluential factors are: data quality, AI competence, infrastructure, organizational size, and perceived complexity. The thesis explains the influence of factors for the AI adoption-decision, among the studied telecoms, providing both academics and professionals with insights on important aspects to consider when adopting AI. Moreover, it goes beyond the hype and demystifies the phenomenon of AI adoption.