The double-edged sword of generative artificial intelligence in digitalization: An affordances and constraints perspective

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has gained prominence across various industries and domains, offering capabilities to generate human-like text, creative ideas, and solutions. This paper explores customers' responses to the use of generative AI in digitalizing content production and consumption processes. Drawing on technology affordance theory, this article examines how are the affordances of generative AI leveraged to contribute to the gradual digitalization of individuals. This netnographic study is based on over 9 months naturalistic observations of the AI Community online, culminating in 1572 pages of data. The findings identify different types of affordances that foster digitalization: automated content creation, automated data analysis, and AI-generated content dissemination. This study also identifies the constraints of generative AI and discusses potential interventions to address these constraints and prevent unintended consequences. This research provides insights for scholars, professionals, and educators to better understand the dynamics of leveraging generative AI.