How Does Applying Artificial Intelligence Influence Firms’ Ambidextrous Innovation Performance? Evidence Obtained from Chinese A-Share Listed Firms

As a transformative technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly reshaping corporate innovation practices, creating new opportunities for ambidextrous (exploitative and exploratory) innovation and thereby advancing sustainable competitiveness. Drawing on ambidextrous theory and adopting a resource-based perspective, we employed panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms in the 2014–2023 period to examine the relationship between AI application and corporate exploitative and exploratory innovation performance as well as the mechanism behind AI’s effects in this regard. We further explored the moderating effect of data resources. The findings reveal that AI application significantly enhances both exploitative and exploratory innovation performance. Improvement in corporate research and development efficiency and the optimization of labor structures play mediating roles in the relationship between AI application and both exploitative and exploratory innovation. Moreover, firms’ data resources strengthen the positive impact of AI on exploitative innovation while weakening its effect on exploratory innovation. Overall, this study provides novel insights into how traditional enterprises can leverage AI to foster ambidextrous innovation and achieve sustainable competitive advantages. These findings offer practical guidance for corporate executives and policymakers on strategically implementing AI for innovation management.