Sociolinguistic compatibility in AI adoption: extending DoI–TOE in public relations

Purpose This study examines how AI adoption in public relations (PR) unfolds in the Arab region and positions that experience against global industry discourses, with attention to the linguistic and cultural conditions that shape adoption trajectories. Design/methodology/approach Guided by Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) and the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, the study combines 20 semi-structured interviews with senior Arab-region practitioners, association leaders and academics across six countries with a directed content analysis of professional guidelines and industry reports of global, cross-regional and regional scope. Findings Adoption is early-stage and selective, concentrated in content assistance, media intelligence and reputation monitoring, driven by efficiency gains and client expectations and inhibited by skills gaps, limited Arabic-language tooling and unclear governance. International discourses converge on augmentation under norms for disclosure, oversight and capability building, while ethical risks are compounded in Arab settings by cultural–linguistic fit and uneven institutional support. Research limitations/implications Interview evidence is concentrated in the Arab region and drawn from a senior, purposively selected sample; cross-regional comparison rests on documentary sources. Practical implications Editorial review should be organized as a staged production sequence; training should target the specific sociolinguistic labour the technology cannot perform; and localization should be approached as an organizational process rather than a tool feature. Global PR associations should incorporate sociolinguistic review as a named component of human-in-the-loop protocols. Social implications Framing sociolinguistic compatibility as organizational work makes visible the human labour behind AI outputs in underserved languages. This supports more equitable AI integration across linguistic communities and strengthens the case for investment in Arabic-language AI capability, protecting culturally attuned communication in Arab public spheres. Originality/value The study contributes a structured comparative positioning of adoption trajectories and a DoI–TOE extension that models how organizational investments produce sociolinguistic compatibility under technological constraints, identifying levers for responsible, context-responsive AI integration in PR.