Crowdsourcing-enabled AI: Unlocking value in digital services

Abstract

Despite the existing literature on the role of digital tools, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, in creating high-value digital services, empirical insights into the role of crowdsourcing-enabled AI tools, those leveraging crowdsourcing to gather the data necessary for AI tool development, remain limited. This gap is especially notable when considering the type of crowdsourcing participants (e.g., general crowd versus specialists) and the pace of technological change in the business landscape, as critical factors in developing digital service using crowdsourcing-enabled AI tools. Drawing on a cross-industry sample of firms collected through an online survey, our findings reveal that involving both the general crowd and specialists contributes to value creation by enhancing customer relationships, improving production and operations, and advancing product and service development. However, in environments characterized by rapid technological change (i.e., high technological turbulence), the involvement of specialists with expert knowledge becomes essential for value creation. These findings highlight the importance of selecting suitable crowdsourcing participants based on the pace of technological change to ensure that digital services developed through crowdsourcing-enabled AI tools deliver substantial value. This study highlights the critical role of leveraging crowdsourcing-enabled AI tools in the development of high-value digital services. It also emphasizes the necessity of considering contingency factors —such as the type of crowdsourcing participants and the degree of technological turbulence —when studying how digital services generate value. By defining the boundary conditions under which such digital services succeed, our research advances the literature and provides clarity on why some digital services achieve success while others do not.