Artificial intelligence has become one of the defining business stories of the moment, promising innovation and efficiency in the workplace. However, organizations do not innovate simply by adopting new tools but by enabling employees to turn information into ideas and ideas into action. How far AI strengthens this process is questionable. 

A quantitative study, titled “The moderating role of artificial intelligence on the relationship between knowledge management and employees innovative work behavior,” by Dr. Silva Karkoulian, professor at the Adnan Kassar School of Business, and Human Resource Management graduate Roger Boulos (MS ’25) sought to test the common assumption that AI naturally drives innovation and to examine whether human-centered knowledge processes remain the more important force.

The primary motivation behind the research paper published in the Journal of Knowledge Management was “the growing importance of knowledge as a strategic organizational resource and the increasing global interest in artificial intelligence as a tool for enhancing organizational performance,” said Dr. Karkoulian. It also aimed to address a gap in empirical research from emerging and crisis-affected contexts such as Lebanon and parts of the GCC, which are often overlooked in favor of developed economies. 

The study was based on a survey of 160 employees across various industries in Lebanon and the GCC region. The results were analyzed using an advanced statistical model designed to examine relationships among variables, along with reliability and validity checks. 

The strongest finding was clear across the board. Knowledge management had a strong, positive and statistically significant effect on all three stages of innovative work behavior: Idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization. In other words, employees were more likely to turn their ideas into useful applications when their organizations were better at sharing and applying knowledge.

The model showed that knowledge management and its interaction with AI explained 47.1 percent of idea generation, 44.6 percent of idea promotion and 41.2 percent of idea realization. 

The unexplained variance, noted Dr. Karkoulian, “can be attributed to several organizational, individual, and contextual factors that extend beyond knowledge management and technological influences.” These include leadership style, organizational culture, and the presence of innovation-supportive, personal attributes such as creativity, intrinsic motivation, skills and prior experience, as well as external and contextual factors, such as economic conditions, industry characteristics and institutional environments. 

While AI “has the potential to play a larger role in explaining this remaining variance,” said Dr. Karkoulian, it is “unlikely to fully account for the unexplained variance, as innovation remains inherently human-driven.” 

Despite the growing hype around AI in the workplace, the study found that AI did not significantly strengthen the relationship between knowledge management and innovation in any of the three areas measured. Its moderating effects on idea generation, promotion and realization were weak and statistically insignificant.

The paper suggests several possible reasons, including cultural barriers, uneven adoption of AI, and continued reliance on traditional knowledge-sharing practices in Lebanon and the GCC. Although there are notable differences in AI adoption between the two, Dr. Karkoulian remarked that “both may rely more on interpersonal communication and managerial direction than on technology-driven knowledge systems, which can limit the effectiveness of AI in enhancing knowledge sharing and innovation.” 

Ultimately, the findings show that the stronger foundation is a workplace where knowledge moves freely, people learn from one another, and good ideas can travel from discussion to execution. AI may eventually play a larger role, but for now, as this study suggests, innovation remains most deeply rooted in human-centered knowledge management.

To browse more scholarly output by the LAU community, visit our open-access digital archive, the Lebanese American University Repository (LAUR).