Human-Centered Digital Transformation for SMEs: Integrating Artificial Intelligence, Organizational Happiness, and Strategic Competitiveness

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-779-8_15How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; Digital Transformation; Human-Centered Management; Organizational Happiness; SMEs; Strategic Competitiveness

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a decisive role in employment generation, productive dynamism, and local economic development, yet they remain especially vulnerable in contexts marked by digital acceleration, uncertainty, and growing competitive pressure. In recent years, digital transformation and artificial intelligence have been widely promoted as central drivers of modernization. However, the evidence increasingly suggests that technological adoption alone does not guarantee better performance, greater adaptability, or sustainable competitive advantages in SMEs. Recent work on SMEs, digital transformation, Industry 5.0, and organizational resilience points in the same direction: digital value depends on the organizational and human conditions that allow technology to be absorbed, interpreted, and strategically mobilized. This chapter argues that the strategic value of digital transformation emerges when intelligent technologies are integrated with digital capabilities, knowledge management, people-centered management, and organizational well-being. Based on a conceptual review, the chapter proposes an integrative framework linking artificial intelligence, digital capabilities, knowledge management, organizational happiness, employee engagement, organizational intelligence, resilience, and strategic competitiveness. In doing so, it brings together research streams that often remain fragmented in the literature, including digital transformation, human-centered management, employee well-being, and Industry 5.0. The chapter makes two central contributions. First, it moves beyond a technology-centered interpretation of digital transformation in SMEs. Second, it offers a conceptual model explaining how intelligent technologies can contribute to sustainable competitiveness only when they are embedded in cultures of learning, trust, and adaptation. The chapter closes with a managerial roadmap and a future research agenda, showing that the future of SME competitiveness is not only digital but deeply human-centered.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this license to share adapted material derived from this chapter or parts of it.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Eduardo Ahumada Tello
AU  - Juan M. A. Perusquía Velasco
AU  - Jessica López-García
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
TI  - Human-Centered Digital Transformation for SMEs: Integrating Artificial Intelligence, Organizational Happiness, and Strategic Competitiveness
BT  - Proceedings of the International Congress on Competitiveness and Development of MSMEs 2026 (ICCD-MSMEs 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 252
EP  - 271
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-779-8_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-779-8_15
ID  - Tello2026
ER  -