A
Artificial Intelligence in the
Public Sector
Bernd W. Wirtz and Jan C. Weyerer
German University of Administrative Sciences
Speyer, Speyer, Germany
Synonyms
AI; Intelligent automation; Machine intelligence;
Machine learning; Robotics
Definition
Artificial intelligence (AI) describes the capability
of a computer system to perform human-like intel-
ligent behavior and problem solving by means of
specific core competencies, comprising percep-
tion, understanding, action, and learning.
Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an
important topic for government and the public
sector around the world (compare for the follow-
ing Wirtz et al. 2018). This importance mainly
results from AI’s ability to significantly contribute
to the problem solving of long-standing issues in
the public sector, such as high turnover rates,
large unmanageable caseloads, administrative
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
A. Farazmand (ed.), Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3701-1
burdens, long waiting times, and delays in service
delivery and language barriers. Accordingly, AI
can provide great benefits for governments, the
public sector, and society as a whole, including
automated working processes, reduced adminis-
trative burden, greater working efficiency, as well
as improved decision-making and service quality
(Eggers et al. 2017). Against this background,
governments across the globe are increasingly
acknowledging the potential of AI for economic
and social progress, introducing specific AI devel-
opment programs and heavily investing in
the field of AI (Wirtz et al. 2018). As a result,
a growing number of governments and public
authorities have introduced AI applications
within the scope of pilot projects (Herman
2017a; Mehr 2017).
However, due to the novelty of AI implemen-
tation and use in the public sector, AI applications
are still emerging and are therefore not
sufficiently known and fully used in the public
sector. Likewise, the associated risks and chal-
lenges are relatively unknown and thus remain
widely unaddressed, potentially threatening the
secure and successful implementation and appli-
cation of AI in the public sector. Against this
background, Wirtz et al. (2018) have identified
and systematized AI applications and related
challenges in the public sector, providing a com-
prehensive overview thereof.
2 Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector
AI Applications in the Public Sector
In order to be able to determine the best AI-based
solution for a certain objective, requires
governments and public authorities to gain
a holistic understanding of the manifold
AI-based opportunities in advance. In doing so,
they need to be aware of and take into account the
full range of potential AI applications, including
AI-based knowledge management software, AI
process automation systems, virtual agents,
predictive analytics and data visualization, iden-
tity analytics, cognitive robotics and autonomous
systems, recommendation systems, intelligent
digital assistants, speech analytics, as well as
cognitive security analytics and threat intelli-
gence. More particularly, governments and public
authorities also need to understand the functional
proposition and value creation with regard to
these applications. These aspects are summarized
and described in the integrated matrix of potential
AI applications for the public sector of Wirtz et al.
(2018) in Table 1.
AI Challenges in the Public Sector
While the implementation and application of AI
in the public sector can take place in a number of
ways, they are also subject to a variety of major
risks and challenges. Overcoming these risks and
challenges is not only a complex and demanding
task for governments and public authorities but
also a crucial success factor of AI in terms of
effectiveness, security, and acceptance. Against
this background, Fig. 1 depicts the Four-AI-
Challenges Model of Wirtz et al. (2018) that
represents an integrated approach to visualize the
key challenges of AI that need to be considered
and where necessary systematically addressed
when implementing and applying AI-based solu-
tions in the public sector.
The Four-AI-Challenges Model proposes four
major dimensions of AI challenges, including AI
technology implementation, AI law and regula-
tions, AI ethics, and AI society, which in turn are
composed of certain subchallenges.
AI Technology Implementation
The dimension of AI technology implementation
includes the challenges of AI safety, system/data
quality and integration, financial feasibility, as
well as specialization and expertise. AI safety
refers to the challenge of ensuring that an AI
application operates in a safe and reliable manner
(Boyd and Wilson 2017). Another major chal-
lenge is ensuring an appropriate quality and inte-
gration of AI systems and data, since these
determine the learning success of AI applications
and thus also their smartness and performance
(EY 2018). Moreover, financial feasibility or
insufficient budget are among the most important
challenges in the context of AI technology imple-
mentation, especially due to the high technologi-
cal, labor, and training costs (Bughin et al. 2017;
Roberts 2017; EY 2018). Finally, the great lack of
AI-related specialization in the workforce and the
shortage of well-trained AI experts represents a
central challenge when it comes to implementing
AI applications (EY 2018).
AI Law and Regulations
The dimension of AI law and regulations
comprises the challenges of governance of
autonomous intelligence system, responsibility,
and accountability, as well as privacy/safety. The
governance of autonomous intelligence systems
pertains to the challenge of understanding and
controlling the often black-box-like behavior and
decision-making of AI applications, as well as
establishing effective and transnationally
compatible governance mechanisms and systems
(Bostrom et al. 2016; Gasser and Almeida 2017).
Another major challenge refers to legally deter-
mining who can be held responsible and account-
able for the behavior and decisions of AI
applications, which is a controversial issue given
that AI applications may defy from human con-
trol, leading to a responsibility gap (Matthias
2004; Johnson 2015). The last challenge in the
context of AI law and regulations is securing
humans’ privacy by protecting personal data and
sensitive network resources through effective
laws and policies (Wirtz et al. 2018).
Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector
Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, Table 1 Integrated overview of potential AI applications for the public
sector
AI application AI value creation and functional proposition
AI-based knowledge Generation and systematization of knowledge –
management gather, sort, transform, record, and share
(KM) software knowledge
Expert systems can support the codification of the
knowledge of KM
Use of neural networks enables to analyze,
distribute, and share knowledge with others
AI process Automation of standard tasks; perform formal
automation systems logical tasks with unpredictable conditions in
consistent quality
Complex human action processes (formal logical
or dangerous tasks) can be transferred to
automation systems, which can support humans in
performing tasks
May include rule-based assessment, workflow
processing, schema-based suggestions, data
mining, case-based reasoning, intelligent sensor
technology
Robotic process automation has emerged as a
subarea through further technology innovations.
This leverages the ability of software robots or
AI-driven workers to mimic human interaction
with user interfaces of software systems
Virtual agents Computer-based system that interacts with the user
by means of speech analytics, computer vision,
written data input but may also include real-time
universal translation and natural language
processing systems and affective computing
Software that can perform tasks for humans
Subareas are chatbots and avatars
Predictive analytics These analytics are based on quantitative and
and data statistical analysis of data.
visualization Processing of big data for reporting, prescriptive
analysis, and predictive analysis
Machine learning as a technical subarea based on
algorithms that can learn from data
Identity analytics Software combined with big data, advanced
analytics, and identity access management to
control the access to IT systems and automate risk-
based identity checks
May include deep learning and machine learning,
affective computing, and artificial immune
systems
Cognitive robotics Systems with higher-level cognitive functions that
and autonomous involve knowledge representation and are able to
systems learn and respond
Sometimes in connection with affective
computing to determine and adapt human behavior
as well as respond to respective emotions
3
Public sector use cases
Clinical documentation powered by AI
(Lin et al. 2018)
Faster and higher quality request
processing for immigration application
forms (Chun 2007)
Automated image diagnoses (Collier
et al. 2017).
Human-computer interaction for
repetitive tasks like data entry
etc. (Jefferies 2016)
Task allocation according to the
respective area of responsibility of a
specific agency (smart HR services)
(Zheng et al. 2018)
Virtual nursing assistant (Collier et al.
2017)
A chatbot for helping refugees that seek
asylum to fill out and search documents
(Mehr 2017)
Control and performance monitoring in
public areas for police departments to
determine terror threats and crime
hotspots for preventive action (Power
2016)
Determine high crime-risk situations to
secure public transport (Kouziokas
2017)
Forecast model to predict water levels
(Kouziokas et al. 2017)
Facial recognition software to verify or
identify criminals in public areas (Power
2016)
AI fraud detection to secure
governmental data (Hemken and Gray
2016)
Electric-powered autonomous vehicles
for public transport (Christchurch
International Airport Limited 2016;
Jefferies 2016)
Robot-assisted surgery (Collier et al.
2017)
(continued)
4 Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector

Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, Table 1 (continued)

AI application AI value creation and functional proposition
Recommendation An information filtering system
systems Software-based systems that screen personalized
information to predict preferences of individuals
Intelligent digital Software based on speech analytics
assistants (IDA) Providing an intuitive interface between a user and
a system/device to search for information or
complete simple tasks
Speech analytics Software for intelligent recognition and processing
of language
Understand or respond to natural language
Translate from spoken to written language or from
one to another natural language
May include real-time universal translation and
natural language processing systems
Cognitive security Additional application for cognitive technologies
analytics and threat to analyze security information through natural
intelligence language processing and machine learning
Interpret and organize information and provide
reasoning
Public sector use cases
E-service for government offices to
provide personalized information for
employees (Cortés-Cediel et al. 2017)
Connecting federal programs to IDAs to
make public service information
available for customers (Herman 2017b)
IDA-Amelia to help residents locate
information and complete applications
forms using speech analytics and
affective computing (Jefferies 2016)
Real-time universal translation
(Microsoft 2018) to translate speech and
text in face-to-face communications in
public service settings
Administrative workflow assistance
with voice to text transcription (Collier
et al. 2017)
Applications like Watson for
cybersecurity (Dheap 2017) to support
human security analysis in the public
sector

AI Ethics Closely connected to this issue are moral

The dimension of AI ethics involves the
challenges of AI-rulemaking for human behavior,
compatibility of machine versus human value
judgment, moral dilemmas, and AI discrimina-
tion. AI-rulemaking for human behavior refers to
the issue of whether it is ethically justifiable to
allow AI applications that lack certain human
traits and constitutional personhood to determine
the rules of human behavior (Wirtz et al. 2018).
In addition, the compatibility of machine versus
human value judgment represents another impor-
tant ethical challenge, as it is associated with the
difficult task of integrating the ethical principles
of human behavior and decision-making into AI
applications, in order to prevent AI applications
from developing their own system of values that
may be a potential threat to humans (Mittelstadt
et al. 2016).
dilemmas that refer to the challenge of ethically
educating AI applications in such a way so that
they are able to make ethical decisions in situa-
tions where only negative outcomes are possible,
including life and death decisions (Conitzer et al.
2017). Finally, AI discrimination as another ethi-
cal challenge involves the development of mea-
sures that help to eliminate discriminatory
behavior and decisions of AI applications as well
as to prevent the transmission of discriminatory
prejudices and stereotypes from humans to AI
applications, particularly in the course of AI pro-
gramming and data transfer (Citron and Pasquale
2014; Mittelstadt et al. 2016).
AI Society
The dimension of AI society includes the
challenges of workforce substitution and
Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector 5

AI Technology Implementation

System/data quality Specialization &

AI safety Financial feasibility
& integration expertise

intelligence system
Transformation of

Governance of
autonomous
H2M/M2M
interaction

AI Law & Regulations

AI Society

Responsibility &
accountability
acceptance/
trust in AI

Challenges
Social

of AI
transformation

Privacy/safety
substitution &
Workforce

Compatibility of
AI-rulemaking for
machine vs. human Moral dilemmas AI discrimination
human behavior
value judgment

AI Ethics

Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, Fig. 1 Four-AI-Challenges model

transformation, social acceptance and trust in AI,
as well as the transformation of H2M/M2M inter-
action. Workforce substitution and transformation
represents a major social challenge, as AI appli-
cations will replace and complement human labor
leading to high unemployment as well as changed
job profiles and requirements that demand
AI-specific skills (Bataller and Harris 2016;
Manyika et al. 2017; EY 2018). Another social
challenge in connection with AI refers to
establishing social acceptance and trust, overcom-
ing current concerns and uncertainties in society
with regard to AI and its potential risks (Fast and
Horvitz 2017; Johnson and Verdicchio 2017).
Finally, the transformation of H2M/M2M
interaction due to AI is also a challenging issue
because of the difficulty to reproduce all details of
human interaction in AI-related interactions,
which is essential for understanding the mode of
operation of AI applications and maintaining
human control in these interactions (Wirtz
et al. 2018).
Conclusion
AI is a technological concept that is becoming
increasingly important to governments and the
public sector due to its revolutionary potential to
increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality
6 Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector
of public service delivery. However, AI is still in
its infancy stage of development in the public
sector and has so far been primarily applied in
the context of pilot programs. Against this back-
ground, applications for the public sector have
been emerging recently, including AI-based
knowledge management software, AI process
automation systems, virtual agents, predictive
analytics and data visualization, identity analytics,
cognitive robotics and autonomous systems,
recommendation systems, intelligent digital assis-
tants, speech analytics, as well as cognitive
security analytics and threat intelligence (Wirtz
et al. 2018).
As AI is increasingly entering the public realm,
the great challenges and risks associated with its
implementation and application become also
more relevant. A consideration and critical
appraisal of these challenges and risks, which
can be technological implementation-related,
legal-regulatory, ethical, and social in nature, is
mandatory for a responsible, secure, and
expedient approach to AI (Wirtz et al. 2018).
Overcoming these challenges and risks will be
decisive for the future success and acceptance of
AI in the public sector and society. Accordingly,
pertinent regulation and risk management will
take on an important role in the future.
Cross-References
▶ Digital Governance
▶ E-Government
▶ Innovation
▶ Innovation and the Digital Agenda
▶ Innovation and the Public Workplace
▶ Law and Public Administration Innovation
▶ Leadership and Technology
▶ Leading Innovation
▶ Modernity and Bureaucracy
▶ Organization Innovation
▶ Organizational Technology
▶ Social Innovation and Technological
Innovation in the Ageing Policy
▶ Technology and Governance
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