Corporate Responses to Generative AI--Early Evidence from Conference Calls
Abstract
We provide early evidence of generative artificial intelligence (GAI)’s potential impact on corporations through managerial discussions of GAI in conference calls after the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Following the release, managerial discussions of GAI in conference calls increase substantially, and the increase is more pronounced for firms with greater innovation intensity, cybersecurity threats, product differentiation, labor exposure to AI, and customer operations, suggesting that these firms are more likely to be affected by GAI. Managers tend to believe that GAI is more beneficial to firms with greater innovation intensity and cybersecurity threats but is more detrimental to firms with greater product differentiation. While they hold mixed views on GAI’s impact on firms with greater labor exposure to AI and customer operations, their views are more likely to be positive than negative. Managers of firms with greater innovation intensity, cybersecurity threats and customer operations (product differentiation) increase initiative-related (non-initiative-related) discussions more. While managers of firms with greater labor exposure to AI increase discussions of both types more, they are more likely to increase initiative-related discussions. Overall, our study sheds light on the heterogeneous corporate perceptions of GAI’s impacts and responses.
Co-authors
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Ning Jia, Tsinghua University - School of Economics & Management
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Ningzhong Li, University of Texas at Dallas
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Da Xu, Tsinghua University, School of Economics and Management