AI adoption and diffusion in public administration: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation in public administration is gaining momentum heralded by the hope of smart public services that are personalised, lean, and efficient. However, the use of AI in public administration is riddled with ethical tensions of fairness, transparency, privacy, and human rights. We call these AI tensions. The current literature lacks a contextual and processual understanding of AI adoption and diffusion in public administration to be able to explore such tensions. Previous studies have outlined risks, benefits, and challenges with the use of AI in public administration. However, a large gap remains in understanding AI tensions as they relate to public value creation. Through a systematic literature review grounded in public value management and the resource-based view of the firms, we identify technology-organisational-environmental (TOE) contextual variables and absorptive capacity as factors influencing AI adoption as discussed in the literature. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that outlines distinct AI tensions from an AI implementation and diffusion perspective within public administration. We develop a future research agenda for the full AI innovation lifecycle of adoption, implementation, and diffusion.