Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify why and how AI in entrepreneurship has been remarked as a transformative driver for value creation but we are still waiting for a meaningful change in its practice. In order to unveil factors behind AI unfulfillment transformative promise in entrepreneurship, this article focuses on understanding how AI enablement mechanisms effect entrepreneurial intentions. By developing a tailor-made scale instrument, we have measured the correlation between AI mechanisms of External Enablers (EE) and entrepreneurial opportunity confidence that have clarified how entrepreneurs recognize AI factors that enable entrepreneurial intentions upon a new venture idea. We have found that entrepreneurs’ confidence has a positive correlation with AI mechanisms of preservation (use AI to preserve already existing resources). Conversely, we cannot conclude the same for more value creation purposes (EE creation effect) that could support entrepreneurs to create new business models and new forms of value. Although these results empirically confirm the role of AI as an EE, AI mechanisms of enablement affect entrepreneurial intention conservatively in terms of value creation. Furthermore, we propose to consider a gradual enablement effect of EE mechanisms, and to highlight the role of uncertainty in the EE framework. The original relevance of this article lies in using data collected before ChatGPT public release (mid-2022) we have unveiled entrepreneurs' conservative attitude towards AI during the definition of new venture ideas. These results could suggest why entrepreneurs struggle with leveraging the AI prowess to create and deliver true value to their customers.