Strategic Positioning Through AI-Based Customer Insights: A Resource-Based View Perspective

Abstract

This article examines how AI-based customer insights contribute to strategic positioning when viewed through the lens of the resource-based view. In increasingly data-rich markets, firms rely on AI and advanced analytics to understand evolving customer needs, yet existing research often treats these tools as operational rather than strategic assets. This study conducts a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles published between 2019 and 2023 to synthesize how AI-enabled customer insight capabilities are conceptualized, how they are linked to firm-level capabilities, and under what conditions they support positional advantage. The review codes studies by theoretical lens, operationalization of AI-based customer insights, and outcome variables, with particular attention to segmentation, differentiation, and value proposition design. The findings indicate that AI-based customer insights are best understood as higher-order marketing capabilities that enhance market sensing and resource orchestration, but that empirical work rarely measures strategic positioning explicitly and is highly contingent on complementary organizational structures, culture, and alignment with business strategy.