The rise of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in government has fundamental implications for public administration and democracy. The growing reliance on these technologies in government:
- Impacts how public bureaucracies function and go about their work, from bureaucratic practices and routines to the very nature of administrative discretion and expertise, as digital tools increasingly 'discipline', supplant or erode traditional epistemic sources and domain expertise.
- Impacts core public values that are to be secured by the public sector such as equity and non-discrimination, as well as transparency and reason-giving duties of the administration, with significant implications for public accountability.
- Transforms the nature of public authority, increasingly automated, mediated by digital intermediaries, and/or relegated to private actors.
- This all comes with critical consequences for the nature of citizen-state interactions and citizen experience of government in its digital iteration, affecting citizens day-to-day experience of government in significant ways, with implications for administrative and political outcomes.