Adoption of artificial intelligence integrated CRM system: an empirical study of Indian organizations

• Published in: The Bottom line (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. 359 - 375
• Main Authors: Chatterjee, Sheshadri, Nguyen, Bang, Ghosh, Soumya Kanti, Bhattacharjee, Kalyan Kumar, Chaudhuri, Sumana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 14.11.2020; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Customer relationship management; Customers; Employees; Hypotheses; Perceptions; Sustainability management; Technology Acceptance Model; India; Technology adoption; Utilitarian attitude; Indian organizations; Hedonic attitude; AI integrated CRM system
• ISSN: 0888-045X; 2054-1724
• DOI: 10.1108/BL-08-2020-0057

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the behavioral intention of the employees to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) integrated customer relationship management (CRM) system in Indian organizations. Design/methodology/approach To identify the factors impacting the behavioral intention of the employees to adopt AI integrated CRM system in Indian organizations helps of literature review and theories have been taken. Thereafter, some hypotheses have been formulated followed by the development of a theoretical model conceptually. The model has been tested statistically for validation using a survey by considering 308 usable respondents. Findings The results of this study show that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use directly impact the behavioral intention of the employees to adopt an AI integrated CRM system in organizations. Also, these two exogenous factors impact the behavioral intention of the employees to adopt an AI integrated CRM system mediating through two intermediate variables such as utilitarian attitude (UTA) and hedonic attitude (HEA). The proposed model has achieved predictive power of 67%. Research limitations/implications By the help of the technology acceptance model and motivational theory, the predictors of behavioral intention to adopt AI integrated CRM systems in organizations were identified. The effectiveness of the model was strengthened by the consideration of two employee-centric attitudinal attributes such as UTA and HEA, which is claimed to have provided contributions to the extant literature. The proposed theoretical model claims a special theoretical contribution as no extant literature considered the effects of leadership support as a moderator for the adoption of an AI integrated CRM system in Indian organizations. Practical implications The model implies that the employees using AI integrated CRM system in organizations must be made aware of the usefulness of the system and the employees must not face any complexity to use the system. For this, the managers of the concerned organizations must create a conducive atmosphere congenial for the employees to use the AI integrated CRM system in the organizations. Originality/value Studies covering exploration of the adoption of AI integrated CRM systems in Indian organizations are found to be in a rudimentary stage and in that respect, this study claims to have possessed its uniqueness.