IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepdps/dp2184.html

Skills, not scale: GenAI and technology adoption

Author

Listed:
  • Nuriye Melisa Bilgin
  • Gianmarco Ottaviano

Abstract

Do the determinants of technology adoption depend on technological architecture? Using administrative data on Turkish firms from 2021 to 2024, we compare the adoption of traditional and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).We show that GenAI adoption is driven by workforce skill intensity and is not positively associated with firm size, whereas traditional AI depends on both scale and skills. Firms that adopt both technologies are distinct and represent the most persistent adoption mode. Conditional on adoption, the skill-to-size ratio governs technology choice, and transition dynamics indicate a sequential process in which firms adopt GenAI before expanding to hybrid use. Exploiting the release of ChatGPT as a quasi-experimental reduction in access costs, we find that high-skill firms differentially increased GenAI adoption, while firm size played a limited role. These results suggest that the canonical size-based diffusion pattern is not universal but depends on the cost structure of technologies, with implications for innovation policy and productivity dispersion.

Suggested Citation

  • Nuriye Melisa Bilgin & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2026. "Skills, not scale: GenAI and technology adoption," CEP Discussion Papers dp2184, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2184
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp2184.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anton Korinek & Jai Vipra, 2025. "Concentrating intelligence: scaling and market structure in artificial intelligence," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 40(121), pages 225-256.
    2. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Khan, Beethika, 2003. "Adoption of New Technology," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3wg4p528, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    3. Nambisan, Satish & Wright, Mike & Feldman, Maryann, 2019. "The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    4. Agrawal, Ajay & Gans, Joshua S. & Goldfarb, Avi, 2019. "Exploring the impact of artificial Intelligence: Prediction versus judgment," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-6.
    5. Nuriye Melisa Bilgin & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2026. "AI unbound: digital infrastructure, AI adoption, and firm performance," CEP Discussion Papers dp2172, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Diego Comin & Martí Mestieri, 2018. "If Technology Has Arrived Everywhere, Why Has Income Diverged?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 137-178, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cirillo, Valeria & Fanti, Lucrezia & Mina, Andrea & Ricci, Andrea, 2023. "The adoption of digital technologies: Investment, skills, work organisation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 89-105.
    2. Dominic Chalmers & Niall G. MacKenzie & Sara Carter, 2021. "Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship: Implications for Venture Creation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1028-1053, September.
    3. Franziska Klügl & Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås, 2024. "Double whammy? Trade and automation in engineering services," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1493-1520, September.
    4. Christian Arnold & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2019. "Determinants of Industrial Internet of Things Adoption in German Manufacturing Companies," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(06), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Schmück, Kilian & Schückes, Magnus & Gutmann, Tobias & Gassmann, Oliver, 2025. "Less trust, more truth: Implications and design choices for business models and platform ecosystems in the age of Web3," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    6. Weking, Jörg & Desouza, Kevin C. & Fielt, Erwin & Kowalkiewicz, Marek, 2023. "Metaverse-enabled entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    7. Tiago Neves Sequeira & Marcelo Santos, 2019. "Technology in 1500 and genetic diversity," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1145-1165, April.
    8. Magnus Schückes & Tobias Gutmann, 2021. "Why do startups pursue initial coin offerings (ICOs)? The role of economic drivers and social identity on funding choice," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1027-1052, August.
    9. Muhammad Farooq Islam & Ozge Can, 2024. "Integrating digital and sustainable entrepreneurship through business models: a bibliometric analysis," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Mbassi, Christophe Martial & Messono, Omang Ombolo, 2023. "Historical technology and current economic development: Reassessing the nature of the relationship," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    11. Jin, Laiqun & Dai, Jiaying & Jiang, Weijie & Cao, Kairui, 2023. "Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Zara Contractor & Germ'an Reyes, 2025. "Generative AI in Higher Education: Evidence from an Elite College," Papers 2508.00717, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2026.
    13. Jinqiu He & Huiwen Su, 2022. "Digital Transformation and Green Innovation of Chinese Firms: The Moderating Role of Regulatory Pressure and International Opportunities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-21, October.
    14. Stefano D’Angelo & Angelo Cavallo & Antonio Ghezzi & Francesco Di Lorenzo, 2024. "Understanding corporate entrepreneurship in the digital age: a review and research agenda," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(12), pages 3719-3774, December.
    15. Hadi Hussain & Wen Jun & Magdalena Radulescu, 2025. "Innovation Performance in the Digital Divide Context: Nexus of Digital Infrastructure, Digital Innovation, and E-knowledge," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(1), pages 3772-3792, March.
    16. Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2025. "Artificial intelligence and labor markets: evidence from google trends," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 49(4), pages 1078-1093, December.
    17. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & David Deming, 2023. "The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI," On the Economy 98843, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    18. Zheng, Liyuan & Zhang, Sheng & Gao, Di & Liu, Jingwei, 2025. "How does digital investment drive real-sector engagement? Theoretical and empirical evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 108(PB).
    19. Thomas, Llewellyn D.W. & Snihur, Yuliya, 2025. "Ecosystem framing and infomediary resonance: Amazon’s early years (1995–2003)," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. Thanos Fragkandreas, 2022. "Three Decades of Research on Innovation and Inequality: Causal Scenarios, Explanatory Factors, and Suggestions," Working Papers 60, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Feb 2022.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion-papers/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.