The Impact of AI Adoption on Organizational Performance in Higher Vocational Institutions: Evidence from Guizhou, China

Abstract

 Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has become increasingly important for improving management efficiency, service quality, and organizational performance in higher vocational institutions. However, limited empirical research has examined how AI adoption contributes to organizational performance in vocational higher education, particularly from an integrated theoretical perspective. Drawing on an extended technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework, this study investigates the relationship between AI adoption and organizational performance in higher vocational institutions. Individual innovation is incorporated into the TOE framework to capture the role of human-level innovation capability in institutional AI adoption. Guizhou Province, China, was selected as the research context because it represents a western region undergoing digital transformation while facing constraints in educational resources and institutional capacity, where higher vocational institutions play an important role in supporting regional industrial upgrading and skilled workforce development. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings indicate that AI adoption has a significant positive effect on organizational performance. The results further show that technological, organizational, environmental, and individual innovation factors are important antecedents of AI adoption. By integrating individual innovation into the TOE framework, this study extends the explanatory scope of the framework and provides empirical evidence on AI-enabled organizational performance improvement in higher vocational education. The findings offer practical implications for institutional leaders and policymakers seeking to promote AI adoption and performance enhancement in vocational education institutions