China’s 14th Five⁃Year Plan for Intelligent Manufacturing Development clearly states the need to promote the innovative application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the field of green manufacturing and develop intelligent green equipment and products. Can the adoption of AI technology in the manufacturing industry achieve incremental quantity and quality improvement? To answer and verify this question, this paper selects panel data from Chinese A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2012 to 2023 as the research sample and employs a fixed-effects model to explore the impact and mechanism of AI application on the incremental quantity and quality improvement of green innovation in manufacturing enterprises. The results show that AI can promote the incremental quantity and quality improvement of corporate green innovation; the mechanism indicates that AI promotes the incremental quantity and quality improvement of corporate green innovation by alleviating information asymmetry and helping enterprises obtain government subsidies; the moderating effect shows that financing constraints play an inverted U-shaped moderating role between AI and the quality of corporate green innovation; heterogeneity analysis indicates that the quantity effect of AI on corporate green innovation is more significant in low-pollution, low-environmental regulation, and high-tech enterprises, while the quality effect of AI on corporate green innovation is more significant in low-pollution, high-environmental regulation, and high-tech enterprises. This paper provides a theoretical basis for enterprises to achieve economies of scale and quality breakthroughs in green innovation, and offers decision-making references for policymakers to optimize the path of AI empowerment.
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