Artificial Intelligence Adoption in SMEs from Emerging Economies
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Abstract
Artificial intelligence has become a strategic technology for strengthening the competitiveness, efficiency, and innovation capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises. However, its adoption in emerging economies remains uneven due to technological, organizational, human, financial, and institutional constraints. The objective of this article is to analyze recent scientific literature on artificial intelligence adoption in SMEs from emerging economies, identifying drivers, barriers, benefits, business applications, theoretical frameworks, and research gaps, with particular attention to its implications for the Peruvian context. The study was conducted through a systematic literature review with thematic synthesis, based on a final corpus of 39 selected documents. The findings show that artificial intelligence adoption mainly depends on digital maturity, managerial leadership, digital competencies, data quality, technological infrastructure, financial resources, ecosystem support, and ethical governance. As a contribution, the article proposes an integrative synthesis to understand artificial intelligence adoption in SMEs from emerging economies. It is concluded that such adoption should be understood as a gradual process of digital transformation and organizational capability building, rather than as the isolated acquisition of technological tools
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