Artificial Intelligence and Social Entrepreneurship - First Waves of the Big Tsunami

Abstract

Social entrepreneurs are agents who strive to find solutions to challenges where the government and the traditional capitalist market have failed. But very often they face challenges of their own that drag them down to the survival stage. At the same time, they are not immune to the rapid changes taking place in the business world either. Artificial Intelligence (AI), and more specifically Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) which can generate content instead of just processing data, have started affecting and altering aspects of human affairs, including entrepreneurs in unforeseen ways. This study aims to shed light on the relationship social entrepreneurs have with GAI technology and how it helps them overcome some of the unique challenges they face compared to their pure for-profit peers. By interviewing 14 Greek social entrepreneurs, this qualitative research develops insight on the motivations and sentiments social entrepreneurs have towards the adoption of GAI technologies in their businesses, as well as the process they follow to integrate them.

The findings indicate that social entrepreneurs’ main motivation behind adopting GAI is its ability to increase their competitive advantage through efficiency and time saving, cost savings, and productivity gains. And they carry mostly excited sentiment regarding GAI as a technology, even though they share concerns regarding some of its general implications. They also think that it is inevitable to use those new technologies because, if they do not, sooner or later they might find themselves out of market. As for the process, regardless of the sentiment, all social entrepreneurs interviewed were motivated to adopt GAI, and mostly by the way of trial and error. This is the first step of an organization to understand what the new technology offers, and it is visible that the most common challenge for social entrepreneurs, which is the lack of resources and talent, can be tackled by the use of GAI technologies.

This inductive research aims to contribute to existing literature in 3 ways. Firstly, it brings to attention the specific challenges faced by social entrepreneurs compared to their conventional for-profit counterparts. Then it discusses about the specific implications GAI technology has on social entrepreneurship due to its unique characteristics. And lastly, it shows how social entrepreneurs are implementing GAI technologies in their business.