From artificial intelligence strategy to strategic resilience: the roles of digital leadership, AI governance, and organizational agility

Purpose The rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) has intensified organizational efforts to enhance innovation, agility, and long-term resilience. However, many firms struggle to translate AI initiatives into sustained strategic outcomes. This study aims to examine how digital leadership, AI strategic orientation, and AI governance jointly shape digital capability and innovation, and how these capabilities foster organizational agility and strategic resilience. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a quantitative research design using survey data collected from 302 managers and professionals across organizations of varying sizes and sectors. Drawing on Dynamic Capabilities Theory and Upper Echelons Theory, the model is empirically tested using PLS-SEM to assess both measurement and structural relationships. Findings The findings demonstrate that digital leadership and AI strategic orientation play central roles in building digital capability, whereas AI strategic orientation and AI governance significantly enhance innovation. Digital capability and innovation jointly foster organizational agility, which emerges as the key mechanism through which AI-related capabilities translate into strategic resilience. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by integrating AI strategic orientation and AI governance into a dynamic capability framework that explains strategic resilience. By empirically positioning organizational agility as the primary transmission mechanism between AI-enabled capabilities and resilience, the research offers a more nuanced understanding of how organizations can move beyond isolated AI initiatives toward sustained, capability-based transformation in turbulent environments.