Gateways to Artificial Intelligence: Developing a Taxonomy for AI Service Platforms

Authors

Flora Geske, Technical University of MunichFollow
Peter Hofmann, Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FITFollow
Luis Lämmermann, Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FITFollow
Vincent Schlatt, Fraunhofer FITFollow
Nils Urbach, Frankfurt University of Applied SciencesFollow

Paper Number

1812

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) carries the potential to drive innovation in many parts of today’s business environment. Instead of building AI capabilities in-house, some organizations turn towards an emergent phenomenon: AI service platforms. However, as a novel concept in both research and practice, a systematic characterization of AI service platforms is missing. To address this gap, we define the concept of AI service platforms and develop a comprehensive taxonomy. Therefore, we rely on existing literature, 14 expert interviews, and a sample of 31 AI service platforms. Our contribution is threefold: First, our taxonomy systematically structures essential properties of AI service platforms, guiding future research and management practice. Second, we derive three generic motives of AI service platforms. Third, we contribute to the literature by critically discussing to what extent AI service platforms fit into the existing academic discourse on digital platforms and elaborate on future research directions.

Recommended Citation

Geske, Flora; Hofmann, Peter; Lämmermann, Luis; Schlatt, Vincent; and Urbach, Nils, "Gateways to Artificial Intelligence: Developing a Taxonomy for AI Service Platforms" (2021). ECIS 2021 Research Papers. 150.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2021_rp/150