A Realist Perspective on AI-era Public Management*

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a number of significant ideas and approaches to addressing the shortcomings of the New Public Management paradigm. Three of these recent ideas, which include Digital Era Governance, Public Value Management, and New Public Governance, emphasise partnerships collaboration and engagement of citizens; performance governance and innovation and recognize the transformational potentials of digital technologies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the digital technologies attracting the greatest interest in public administration in terms of its potential impact. There are already a number of reports on how AI is being deployed in the public sector with good outcomes. By employing a realist review approach, this study investigates the specific mechanisms across post-NPM, organisational, individual and innovation contexts which are associated with positive outcomes from AI initiatives in the public sector. The study further examined the specific applications of AI initiatives within Post-NPM agendas. Our findings provide some empirical evidence for a better understanding of the conditions and where to target AI-based solutions in post-NPM context for positive outcomes.