A Narrative Process Theory of AI Integration into Talent Acquisition

Abstract

Research Question: How can AI integration into Talent Acquisition be conceptualized as a recursive organizational process through which AI-enabled organizational capabilities emerge over time? Motivation: Research on AI in Human Resource Management has generated important insights into technology adoption, digital HRM, and algorithmic decision-making. However, it has largely conceptualized AI integration as a technology implementation challenge, providing limited explanation of how AI-enabled organizational capabilities emerge through organizational processes. Motivated by practical challenges associated with AI integration in Talent Acquisition, this paper develops a narrative process theory that conceptualizes AI integration as a recursive organizational process rather than a linear implementation sequence. Building on process theory, the proposed framework shifts attention from technology adoption to capability emergence, providing a richer explanation of AI-enabled organizational transformation. Idea: The paper develops a narrative process theory in which AI integration unfolds through three recursive phases—Initiation, Diffusion, and Routinization—linked by collective sensemaking, experimentation and enactment, and reflexive learning and institutionalization. These generative mechanisms explain how AI-enabled Talent Acquisition capability progressively emerges through organizational action. Data: This is a conceptual study. The analysis synthesizes and integrates literature on AI in Human Resource Management, process theory, organizational routines, and dynamic capabilities to develop a theoretically grounded process framework. Findings: AI-enabled Talent Acquisition capability emerges through three interconnected phases linked by generative mechanisms connecting organizational interpretation, experimentation, and learning. The recursive process explains how AI-supported practices emerge, stabilize, and evolve through organizational action. The framework extends AI in HRM research by explaining capability emergence through organizational processes and provides a foundation for future empirical research. Contribution: The paper introduces a narrative process theory explaining AI integration through recursive organizational capability development, extending AI in HRM, process theory, and organizational capability research.