<p>While artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is increasingly critical, firms often exhibit a divergence between symbolic adoption and substantive action. This study investigates this opportunistic gap, conceptualized as AI washing. Drawing on the resource-based view, we examine how different types of organizational slack influence AI washing based on a large sample of Chinese listed firms. The empirical results reveal an asymmetric effect. Unabsorbed slack provides high resource flexibility that effectively suppresses AI washing. Conversely, absorbed slack induces resource rigidity, which is associated with an inverted U-shaped relationship between absorbed slack and AI washing. Furthermore, boundary conditions such as asset specificity, as well as financial constraints significantly moderate these relationships. By shifting the research focus toward the organizational drivers of AI washing, this study offers critical insights into bridging the gap between symbolic adoption and substantive action.</p>