Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly essential for enhancing many conventional business processes and generating market opportunities. And yet, for AI to truly gain mainstream acceptance, there is a need to develop a vast array of different applications to cater to the myriad needs of the market. This, however, cannot be achieved by any AI firm in isolation. Instead, there is a need for the collectivization of a synergistic ecosystem of entities. How such an AI ecosystem is developed, however, has not been the subject of research to date. To address this gap, we conducted a case study of iFlytek, one of the most successful AI firms in China and the world. Based on our ongoing study, we developed a theoretical framework that illustrates the stages of AI ecosystem development, which can provide guidelines for other technology firms and policymakers on the orchestration and governance of market-driven AI applications
