Title: Business transformation in the age of generative AI: from strategy to societal impact

Authors: Iskander Zouaghi; Samuel Fosso Wamba

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Ecole Nationale Polytechnique, 10 avenue H. Badi BP 182 El Harrach, Algiers, Algeria ' Information, Operations and Management Sciences, TBS Business School, 1 Place Alphonse Jourdain, 31068 Toulouse, France

Abstract: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming the foundations of business innovation, operations, and strategy. Moving beyond traditional AIs focus on prediction, GenAI enables the autonomous creation of novel content, designs, and processes across diverse business domains. This paper synthesises the state of research on GenAIs transformative impact, covering strategic innovation, operational excellence, customer engagement, and organisational development. It explores key technical architectures, transformers, GANs, VAEs, diffusion, and multimodal systems, and examines emerging challenges related to ethics, fairness, privacy, and regulation. Drawing from recent literature and practical deployments, the study identifies critical gaps and proposes a future research agenda at the intersection of AI and business. The analysis highlights GenAIs dual role as a catalyst for business model innovation and a driver of systemic change in organisational learning and decision-making. The paper invites scholars and practitioners to engage in shaping this rapidly evolving field with responsibility and foresight.

Keywords: generative artificial intelligence; GenAI; business model innovation; BMI; strategic transformation; operational excellence; customer experience; AI architectures; ethical AI; supply chain optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGAIB.2026.151813

International Journal of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Business, 2026 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.238 - 262

Received: 08 Jun 2025
Accepted: 01 Jul 2025
Published online: 20 Feb 2026 *