Artificial Intelligence Adoption and Organizational Resilience in SMEs: The Roles of Ambidextrous Innovation and Environmental Unpredictability

Organizational resilience is a crucial skill for businesses to withstand environmental instability and pursue sustainable growth. In the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) era, effectively utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance organizational resilience has become a key challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper examines how AI adoption affects organizational resilience and the factors that influence this relationship, drawing on the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory. Based on survey data from 275 Chinese SMEs, the findings show that AI adoption significantly boosts organizational resilience. Moreover, ambidextrous innovation acts as a mediator, with exploitative innovation serving as the primary pathway. Further analysis indicates that environmental unpredictability strengthens the connection between AI adoption and resilience. These insights deepen the understanding of AI-driven resilience and offer practical guidance for SMEs seeking to build resilience in the face of uncertainty.