Digital technologies have the potential to transform all aspects of firms’ operations. The emergence of advanced digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning raises questions about whether and when micro-businesses should adopt these technologies. In this paper we focus on how firms’ adoption decisions on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning influence their innovation capabilities. Using survey data for over 6,000 micro-businesses in the UK, we identify two groups of adopters based on the timing of their adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. ‘first movers’ – early adopters of the new technologies - and ‘second movers’- later adopters of the new technology. Probit models are used to investigate the innovation benefits of first and second mover adoption strategies. Our results suggest strong and positive impacts of adopting Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning on micro-businesses’ innovation outcomes and innovation processes. We highlight the differential benefits of first mover and second mover strategies and highlight the role of technology characteristics as the differentiating factor. Our results emphasize both the innovation enabling role of digital technologies and the importance of an appropriate strategic approach to adopting advanced digital technologies.

数字技术有可能改变公司运营的方方面面。人工智能和机器学习等先进数字技术的出现引发了关于微型企业是否以及何时应该采用这些技术的问题。在本文中，我们重点关注公司对人工智能和机器学习的采用决策如何影响他们的创新能力。使用对英国 6,000 多家微型企业的调查数据，我们根据采用人工智能和机器学习的时间确定了两组采用者。“先行者”——新技术的早期采用者——和“后发者”——新技术的后来采用者。Probit 模型用于调查先行者和后继者采用策略的创新收益。我们的结果表明采用人工智能和机器学习对微型企业的创新成果和创新过程产生了强大而积极的影响。我们强调先动者战略和后动者战略的不同优势，并强调技术特征作为差异化因素的作用。我们的结果强调了数字技术的创新推动作用以及采用适当的战略方法来采用先进数字技术的重要性。