Building a Contextual READINESS Model for AI‐Triggered Crises: Global Lessons From Algorithmic Exploitation in China's Food‐Delivery Platforms

ABSTRACT READINESS represents a proactive mindset reflecting an organization's willingness and capability to prepare for crises and respond ethically. To understand how organizations become “ready” for complex crises, particularly those arising from public moral outrage over publicly exposed AI use, this article proposes the Contextual READINESS Model for AI‐triggered crises, concentrating on crises driven by ethical and governance failures rather than technical issues. The model extends READINESS to a non‐Western dimension and positions it as an intermediary construct that links context and crisis communication strategies through theoretical integration. It also incorporates ethical AI adaptation into the broader crisis management process. Drawing on a comparative case study of two Chinese food delivery companies accused of algorithmic exploitation, the study shows how sociocultural dynamics shape READINESS, with proactive versus lagging READINESS leading to distinct communication and learning patterns. It also illustrates how organizations internalize, operate, and communicate ethical AI principles during and after crises. Overall, the study underscores READINESS's pivotal role in shaping responses to AI‐related ethical crises and contributes both theoretically, by expanding crisis communication frameworks to include contextual and ethical dimensions of AI, and practically, by offering a non‐Western perspective on organizational resilience and moral accountability.