Background

In 2025–2026, INFOTA Research Institute conducted a survey on AI readiness, attitudes and AI use among Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises. This research direction was initiated within a project aimed at supporting the innovation capacity of SMEs and funded by the Batthyány Lajos Foundation.

The funded project ran from 15 September 2025 to 15 April 2026. Although the project has been completed, its findings raised new scientific questions that require further investigation.

INFOTA is therefore continuing the research as an independent scientific programme financed from its own resources. The present research phase is not part of the completed funded project and is not a funded extension of it.

What do we investigate?

The central research question is:

Why do some SMEs become stalled at the AI experimentation stage, and through what organisational mechanisms do others progress towards routine and organisationally embedded AI use?

The study focuses in particular on how AI use begins within a firm; which decisions, successes, failures and turning points shape the process; how individual or informal use becomes an organisational practice; what roles are played by leadership, responsibility allocation, capacity, measurement and human oversight; and why uncertainty or discomfort may persist even when AI is used regularly.

How is the study conducted?

The study is a qualitatively driven, multiple-case research project combining a linked questionnaire with in-depth interviews.

The planned fieldwork covers 13–18 Hungarian business cases and an expected total of 16–24 interviews. Selected participants complete a short screening form and a research questionnaire before taking part in a semi-structured interview lasting approximately 60–75 minutes.

In selected firms, both managerial and operational perspectives are included. This enables the study to compare how decision-makers and employees who use the technology in practice understand the same AI implementation process.

The study is not a representative business survey. Its purpose is to develop an in-depth understanding of contrasting processes, critical events and organisational mechanisms.

Relationship to the earlier survey

Participants in the earlier survey and the present study cannot be linked at either the individual or the company level. Identifying data from the earlier study were deleted in accordance with the commitments made to participants.

All participants in the present study are newly recruited research participants. Within the new study, however, a participant’s questionnaire responses and interview can be linked through a pseudonymous research identifier.

The earlier survey provides the theoretical starting point, while the present study investigates the organisational processes underlying those quantitative findings.

Research ethics and data protection

Participation is voluntary. Fieldwork will begin only after ethics approval has been obtained.

Research data are processed in pseudonymised form, while personal and company identifiers are stored separately from the research data. Neither participants nor companies will be named in public scientific outputs. Raw audio recordings and full interview transcripts will not be made public. Only disclosure-checked quotations, aggregated findings and generalisable mechanisms may be published.

Expected outputs

Expected outputs include a peer-reviewed journal article; a mechanism-based process model describing how AI experimentation may become organisationally embedded; a comparison of successful, stalled and contradictory cases; and public documentation of the research protocol and measurement instruments.

Generalisable findings may also contribute to the development of professional and advisory methods supporting AI use among SMEs.

Funding

The current phase of the study is financed from the own resources of INFOTA Research Institute. It is not part of the earlier project funded by the Batthyány Lajos Foundation and does not receive continuing financial support from that project.

Research team

Ferenc Kiss, PhD
Levente Szabados, PhD
Ottó Werschitz