Chatbots: Moving from an Imposed Necessity to a Strategic Necessity for Iranian Organizations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the attitude and readiness of Iranian organizations to adopt chatbot technology and to examine the question of whether this chatbot technology and its application in organizations, from the perspective of decision-makers, is more of an “imposed compulsion” resulting from external pressures or a “strategic necessity” rooted in the perception of internal opportunities. This study was conducted with a survey approach and through the distribution of a researcher-made questionnaire among 300 senior managers and experts from different industries: Information Technology (38%), Financial and Banking Services <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(23 \%)$</tex>, E-Commerce (18%), Manufacturing and Industry (9%), Consulting and Tourism Services (7%), and Health (5%). The research findings showed that despite a strong belief in the strategic necessity of chatbots (average 4 out of 5) and the dominance of intrinsic motivation (43%) over competitive pressure <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(32 \%)$</tex>, there is a deep gap between attitude and practice; so that financial barriers (52%) with the lowest budget readiness score (2.3 out of 5) and organizational data bottlenecks (average 2.8 out of 5) were identified as the main barriers. The dominant view of chatbots was operational, focusing on cost reduction <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(44 \%)$</tex> and customer support <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(44 \%)$</tex>, with only a minority <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(16 \%)$</tex> seeing them as a “strategic transformation driver.” The study concludes that chatbots in Iranian organizations are moving from a “response to compulsion” stage to a “perceived strategic imperative,” but this transition faces serious implementation hurdles, particularly in resource allocation and data maturity. Success on this path requires translating strategic value into tangible financial terms, designing industry-based enabling programs, and focusing on long-term operational challenges.

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