Benefits and risks of introducing artificial intelligence into trade and commerce : the case of manufacturing companies in West Africa

With innovations in technology, the application of artificial intelligence (A.I) in the area of commerce is rising to the top with an expected growing number of business transactions not just for entrepreneurs but for consumers as well. It advances the understanding of how A.I. can be used to enhance businesses around the world by establishing their presence online to reach customers beyond borders. This study highlights the benefits and risks of introducing A.I. into trade in terms of how the commerce industry operates and revolutionize products shopping. Significantly, the primary aim of this paper is to explore ways A.I. is integrated into commerce to help understand its impact on existing/potential customers and its efficiency in sales processes. With a sample size of 2,903 manufacturing companies in four West-African countries, the empirical results show that value-based adoption of A.I. approach outperforms the traditional/human search of customers' products delivery in both convenience, accuracy and profitability. Furthermore, A.I. approach within commerce achieved competitive advantage with several modernized customer service machine learning approach such as automated content creation, voice assistance, image search among others. Clearly, this shows that the application of A.I system into commerce introduces significant competitive advantages in terms of trust, quality, openness and security.