Generative AI Use in Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Review and an Empowerment-Entrapment Framework

arXiv cs.AI / 4/6/2026

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Key Points

The paper provides an integrative review of how generative AI affects entrepreneurs across the full entrepreneurial process, from opportunity recognition to venture launch and growth.
It proposes the “Empowerment–Entrapment Framework,” arguing GenAI acts as a double-edged sword that can simultaneously improve outcomes and create new risks.
The authors highlight concrete tradeoffs, including potential benefits like higher idea quality and productivity alongside harms such as hallucinations, training-data bias, overconfidence, reduced relational embeddedness, and “workslop.”
The review identifies GenAI core features that drive these effects and explains boundary conditions—such as entrepreneurs’ metacognition, domain expertise, and prior experience—that moderate the magnitude of empowerment vs. entrapment.
It concludes with practical guidance for strategically using GenAI during entrepreneurship while actively managing threats to critical thinking, learning, and memory.

Abstract

Despite the growing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in entrepreneurship, research on its impact remains fragmented. To address this limitation, we provide an integrative review of how GenAI influences entrepreneurs at each stage of the entrepreneurial process: (1) opportunity recognition and ideation, (2) opportunity evaluation and commitment, (3) resource assembly and mobilization, and (4) venture launch and growth. Based on our review, we propose the Empowerment-Entrapment Framework to understand how GenAI can both empower and entrap entrepreneurs, highlighting GenAI's role as a double-edged sword at each stage of the entrepreneurial process. For example, GenAI may improve venture idea quality but introduce hallucinations and training data biases; boost entrepreneurial self-efficacy but heighten entrepreneurial overconfidence; increase functional breadth but decrease relational embeddedness; and boost productivity but fuel "workslop" and erode critical thinking, learning, and memory. Moreover, we identify core features of GenAI that underlie these empowering and entrapping effects. We also explore boundary conditions (e.g., entrepreneurs' metacognition, domain expertise, and entrepreneurial experience) that shape the magnitude of these effects. Beyond these theoretical contributions, our review and the Empowerment-Entrapment Framework offer practical implications for entrepreneurs seeking to use GenAI strategically throughout the entrepreneurial process while managing its risks.