Does AI contribute to systemic risk reduction in non-financial corporations?

Abstract

While the systemic risk of financial institutions has been frequently discussed, the equally systemically important non-financial corporations have received insufficient attention. We examine a sample of listed Chinese non-financial corporations from 2010 to 2022 and confirm that AI use in non-financial corporations reduces their systemic risk. This beneficial impact is more pronounced in non-state-owned corporations, corporations in the growth stage, and corporations in the economic expansion period. Subsequently, we attribute this result to three risk control channels: decreasing risk-taking levels, reducing default risk, and weakening credit risk contagion. The research extends the understanding of systemic risk to non-financial corporations, providing new insights for balancing technological upgrading with achieving economic stability.