Exploring Organizational AI Governance Maturity: A Case Study with Six Multinational Companies

This research investigates European-based multinational companies’ adoption of organizational AI governance. Prior research has mainly focused on regulatory levels of AI governance, with only recent studies exploring organizational AI governance conceptually. Therefore, this study aims to discover to what extent multinational companies have adopted AI governance, and why. We conduct a multiple case study analyzing data from six multinational companies. Our investigation focuses on how the perception of responsible AI as a strategic resource and its alignment with corporate strategy impacts the maturity of organizational AI governance. Our results demonstrate that AI governance maturity varies significantly depending on whether responsible AI is viewed as a strategic resource and integrated with corporate governance. Ultimately, our research highlights the critical importance of aligning AI governance with corporate strategy, not only to achieve governance maturity but also to transform compliance, particularly with the EU AI Act, into a sustainable competitive advantage.