Dealing with the algorithm: Entrepreneurial encounters with Generative AI

Abstract

This article investigates how entrepreneurial collectives make sense of generative artificial intelligence (genAI). GenAI has the transformational and disruptive potential to be a ‘gamechanger’ for entrepreneurship. However, little is known how entrepreneurs make sense of this technological innovation and develop shared meanings. This research builds on discursive practices as a form of sensemaking achieved by collectives. Specifically, we unveil the agentic capabilities of digital technologies during the discursive sensemaking process. We use a netnographic approach to analyze statements of entrepreneurs in an online community. The data reveals three modes of making sense – 1) sharing experiments, 2) (de-)valuing, and 3) positioning. Departing from these three modes, we theorize entrepreneurial collective sensemaking and develop two meaningful configurations of genAI. The study contributes to entrepreneurial sensemaking by the novel framing of engagement with new technology as a discursive process that emphasizes collective practices, emotions, and digital agency Show more