Generative Artificial Intelligence and Digital Platforms: Emerging Transformations, Tensions, and Research Directions

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming digital platforms. Unlike earlier AI technologies centered on prediction and classification, GenAI's creational capabilities, probabilistic outputs, and iterative learning dynamics reshape how value is created, captured, and governed within platform ecosystems. This editorial synthesizes insights from the special issue (SI) on “The Transformative Power of Generative AI for Digital Platforms,” which received 38 submissions and published six articles spanning organizational, technological, strategic, behavioral, and societal perspectives. Drawing on the existing literature, the editorial develops a multidimensional framework that organizes the dimensions of GenAI-driven platform transformation: adoption and organizational embedding; creational affordances and innovation mechanisms; strategic and operational reconfiguration; human and behavioral responses; and governance, risk, and legitimacy. We further conceptualize the dimensions as a recursive generativity-governance cycle linking embedding, affordance actualization, platform reconfiguration, stakeholder responses, and governance feedback. The published articles are subsequently mapped onto this framework, highlighting their contributions to both literature and practice. The editorial concludes by outlining theoretical implications, managerial considerations, and directions for future research, offering a comprehensive understanding of GenAI as a sociotechnical force reconfiguring platform architectures, decision processes, human-AI interaction, and institutional environments.