AI-driven competitive advantage: the role of personality traits and organizational culture in key account management

Purpose The importance of key account management (KAM) as a management technique in business-to-business markets has grown in recent years. The success of KAM programmes is highly dependent on the efforts of individual employees, specifically key account managers. Research on KAM at an individual level is important but lacking in the academic domain. This study aims to fill this gap by developing and evaluating a model of key account manager personality traits and how they impact the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The study also depicts the effect of the adoption of AI technologies on competitive advantage and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach The study examines how the adoption of AI technologies impacts firms’ competitive advantage and performance. The study used competitive advantage as a mediator and organisational culture as a moderator. A mixed-method analysis was used to conduct the study. In the first phase, an exploratory study was conducted using interviews with 26 key account managers from the automobile industry and thematic analysis to establish 9 constructs. In the second phase, which is a confirmatory study, 496 respondents finally responded to the questionnaire. Findings All constructs are used for confirmatory analysis and validate the data. Our research shows that key account managers’ adoption of AI technologies is influenced significantly by personality traits. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness have substantial links to adopting AI technologies, which impacts firms’ competitive advantage and performance. Organisational culture significantly moderates the association between agreeableness and the adoption of AI technologies. Practical implications The findings of this research allow organisations to optimise team composition, customise training programs based on individual traits and incorporate personality assessments into recruitment processes for streamlined technology adoption and improved competitiveness. Overall, these actions aim to enhance AI integration, driving competitive advantage and client satisfaction. Originality/value This study stands out as one of the limited inquiries examining how the Big-five personality traits of key account managers influence the integration of AI technologies and its resulting impact on company performance. Therefore, this research makes notable contributions to the realms of organisational psychology and technology adoption studies.