Artificial Intelligence and Economic Growth in Jordan: A Mixed-Methods Study of Commercial Banking Applications as a Mediating Channel

We ask what artificial intelligence (AI) is actually doing to macroeconomic growth in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and by what route. Three channels are considered: efficiency gains, wider financial inclusion, and lower transaction costs. The paper also treats the “Commercial Banking Applications” platform, hereafter CBAs, as a mediating channel, based on the argument that innovation only reaches the real economy when some concrete piece of infrastructure carries it there. The design is mixed and descriptive–analytical. On the quantitative side, a questionnaire was administered to 403 respondents drawn from employees and experts across Jordan’s banking and financial environment. On the qualitative side, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 experts and senior officials. Among these, the Central Bank, the Securities Commission, and the Association of Banks were represented, along with founders of financial technology start-ups. Structural and path relationships were estimated in AMOS, supported by multiple regression. AI has a statistically significant positive effect on growth overall. The total effect is 0.829 at a significance level of 0.000, and the model accounts for 65.9% of the variance in economic growth. CBAs carry a substantial share of that. Its indirect effect is 0.341, or 34.1%, delivered mainly by cutting the time and effort a transaction takes and by holding together an otherwise fragmented set of financial connections, with liquidity rising as a result. The main recommendation of this article follows from this: invest in comprehensive financial connectivity. Financial connectivity and integration proved to be the factor most closely linked with growth, which makes it necessary to invest in the development of flexible technological channels for the growth of digital systems and to ensure the technical simplicity of interactions between Commercial Banking Applications, start-ups, and government agencies.