The spatial spillover effects of artificial intelligence on export sophistication

Based on precise geographical data of firms, this study constructs a pairwise distance density function to measure the Duranton–Overman index of Chinese companies from 2012 to 2022; it further develops a micro-level spatial weight matrix to examine the spatial effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on firms’ export technological sophistication. The empirical results show that AI significantly enhances such sophistication and exhibits a notable positive spatial spillover effect. The decomposition results indicate that the indirect effects are significantly positive. In contrast, the direct effects are insignificant, suggesting that the AI development of other firms can effectively promote a firm’s technological sophistication in exports. These findings remain robust under various robustness and endogeneity tests, and the effect is more pronounced for coastal cities and non-state-owned enterprises. Channel analysis further reveals that AI promotes export technological sophistication by improving production efficiency and facilitating the servitisation transformation of firms.