THE EVOLVING ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ADOPTION, IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

As pharmaceutical organizations increasingly consider adopting artificial intelligence (AI), the data presented in this article only covers the direct impact between AI adoption and employee engagement. As a result, this manuscript considers AI adoption as the predictor, and employee engagement as the outcome. Constructs not measured in the current dataset such as strategic planning, organizational success, and employee or organizational performance are not tested. 300 respondents (Pharmaceutical employees) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan were selected to complete a quantitative cross-sectional survey. The measures were based on 10 items for AI adoption and 12 items for employee engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption). The Cronbach's alpha rate was excellent for the two constructs: AI adoption (0.952) and employee engagement (0.917). Moderate-AI adoption (M = 3.411, SD = 0.705) was observed, as was moderate-to-high employee engagement (M = 3.529, SD = 0.500) (descriptive findings). The Pearson correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between the AI adoption and employee engagement (0.575, p < 0.01). Simple linear regression further showed that AI adoption significantly predicted employee engagement (B = 0.408, beta = 0.575, t = 12.145, p < 0.001), explaining 33.1% of the variance in employee engagement (R² = 0.331; F = 147.508, p < 0.001). The results indicate that AI can enhance the employee engagement when used as a tool for work in a pharmaceutical company. The study thus contributes to the literature on AI-at-work in a developing regional pharmaceutical context empirically in a scope-consistent way.