Ready or Not, Here AI Come : Exploring Readiness for AI in CRM Contexts

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become more common in customer relationship management(CRM) platforms which exposes organizations to both possibilities and challenges. AlthoughCRM platforms contain AI functionalities, organizations struggle to adopt. The studyinvestigates what makes an organization ready to adopt the AI functionalities in CRM based onthe experiences and insights from CRM consultants. The perspective of CRM consultants isparticularly interesting given their pivotal role in CRM adoption projects. The study applies aqualitative research design, using semi-structured interviews with CRM consultants as datacollection method. A thematic analysis of the empirical data resulted in four themes;Organizational Readiness and User Attitudes, Data and Security, the Maturity of the AIFunctionalities and the Consultants Role in Setting the Readiness. Empirical findings were thenrelated to the Grounded Theory Framework of AI Readiness. Theoretically, the study contributesby confirming and expanding previous research on strategic operational integration of AIfunctionalities within CRM contexts. The study concludes that CRM consultants highlightperceived user value, ease of use, trust towards the AI-generated output, financial resources,governance, security and data quality concerns, readiness of the AI functionalities and releasemethods as contributing factors for readiness ahead of adoption to AI functionalities in CRM.The study also provides practical implications, by demonstrating the importance of a dualstrategy balancing long-term visions with short-term realities while adopting AI functionalitieswithin CRM.