Exploring the relationship between intelligent automation and financial decisions: The roles of digitalization and managerial experience in service micro and small enterprises in Chiclayo, Peru

Background Intelligent automation has gained relevance in business management because of its ability to optimize processes, improve information, and support decision-making. However, there is limited evidence on the organizational conditions that may modify its relationship with financial decisions in Peruvian MSEs. Methods A quantitative, applied, non-experimental, and cross-sectional study was conducted with 372 managers of service MSEs in Chiclayo, selected through simple random sampling. A 36-item questionnaire with a five-category Likert scale was administered, and descriptive analyses, Spearman correlations, and moderated regression with centered variables and HC3 robust errors were used, complemented by slopes and the Johnson-Neyman procedure. Results Intelligent automation was positively and significantly associated with financial decisions (B = .404; p < .001) and explained 28.5% of their variability. The global interactions with digitalization and managerial experience were not individually significant, although their joint evaluation was significant (p = .045). In the dimensional model, only the interaction trust in results × digitalization was significant (B = .120; p = .009). Conclusions Intelligent automation was favorably related to financial decisions, especially in firms with higher levels of digitalization.