Artificial intelligence and SMEs: How can B2B SMEs leverage AI platforms to integrate AI technologies?

Drawing on the SDL perspective whereby platforms are seen as multi-layered modular structures, our work adopts a case study approach to investigate how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can leverage AI platforms to integrate AI Technologies. A digital platform headquartered in China was selected for our research. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with the managers of the platform company, platform user companies, and external module providers. Our findings identify three layers of the AI platform where interactions between platform users and the platform take place. We further identify six roles adopted by these users and highlight the mechanisms of their interactions with the platform. Our findings further explore the conditional factors relating to these interactions, namely, knowledge (operational, functional, and technological), organizational processes, and access to external data. With these findings, our study contributes to the platform literature by highlighting its multi-layer architecture. Our study also contributes to the literature on service platforms by describing five types of interactions experienced by platform users when leveraging platforms. Finally, we contribute to the literature on SME AI adoption by revealing the role of platforms in the process.