Collaborative AI Literacy and Digital Governance Empowerment for Rural Women-Led Microenterprises: A Participatory Social Innovation Model for Sustainable Community Development

Abstract

The acceleration of digital transformation has intensified structural inequalities in marginalized communities, particularly among rural women-led microenterprises lacking digital governance capacity, technological literacy, and institutional access. This community service program aimed to develop a participatory and collaborative empowerment model integrating artificial intelligence (AI) literacy, digital entrepreneurship training, and community-based governance innovation for women-led microenterprises in a semi-rural economic cluster. Using a participatory action research framework combined with collaborative governance principles, the program involved local government agencies, universities, community cooperatives, financial institutions, and women’s associations in the co-design and implementation of digital empowerment interventions. The program engaged 126 women entrepreneurs across three community learning centers through multi-stage capacity-building activities including AI-assisted business management training, digital financial literacy workshops, participatory mentoring, and institutional partnership facilitation. Empirical findings demonstrate significant improvements in digital business adaptation, participatory governance engagement, financial management capability, and community innovation practices. The percentage of participants using digital marketplaces increased from 28% to 79%, while institutional participation in local development forums rose substantially following collaborative governance facilitation. The study further reveals that sustainable empowerment outcomes were strongly influenced by long-term institutional partnerships, peer-learning mechanisms, and localized social innovation ecosystems rather than short-term training interventions alone. The article contributes to community service scholarship by proposing an integrated model connecting community participation, collaborative governance, AI

literacy, and sustainable social innovation for inclusive local development.