P29 Implementing AI in the public sector
Implementing AI in the public sector: Adoption, work, quality, and context-dependent outcomes
Panel chairs
Corresponding chair
- Professor Anette Hallin, Mälardalen University, Sweden. anette.hallin@mdu.se
Co-Chairs
- Dr Jarmo Pulkkinen, Independent researcher affiliated with the University of Lapland, Finland
- Dr Martin Haus, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
- Professor Roger Andre Søraa, NTNU, Norway
- Professor Bertil Rolandsson, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Artificial intelligence, technologies that imitate human capabilities and that may operate in software, in databases, or be embedded in physical devices, is increasingly becoming embedded in public services production and delivery. Although the discourse of AI is marked by great promises of quality, cost savings, and efficiency, research indicates that AI does not always deliver on these promises.
This practice-oriented panel examines how public organizations implement and use AI and how this reshapes work, public service quality, effectiveness, and public value. It treats AI implementation and use as a multilevel, systemic, and context-dependent process, where the outcomes emerge across technologies, employees, teams, organizations, technology providers, and the citizens, clients, and patients who use public services.
We invite contributions on AI adoption, innovation, implementation, and use; contributions that examine the conditions and effects in terms of organizational readiness and change. We also invite contributions that address issues related to data infrastructure and AI-readiness; AI and changes to professional identity, skills, roles, and discretion; hidden and compensatory work created in public sector organizations by AI; and the negotiation and assessment of service quality when services are delivered by AI. The panel welcomes research that examines how social and technological factors shape AI in practical use across institutional contexts, and that seeks to understand why similar technologies produce different outcomes in different settings.
We welcome theoretical, conceptual, empirical, and methodological papers using qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, comparative, or longitudinal designs. Interpretive, constructivist, sociotechnical, and critical perspectives are particularly relevant. Studies conducted in real administrative and service settings or experimental studies with clear real-world implications are particularly encouraged.