From external provision to technological outsourcing: lessons for public sector automation from the outsourcing literature

ABSTRACT

Automation is not new, but the possibilities for automation have been significantly expanded in recent years through advancements in artificial intelligence. Such technologies may drive some improvements, although they are not without risk and we lack a solid evidence base to suggest the implications of these changes. Framing AI supported automation as ‘technological outsourcing’, we draw on the well-established outsourcing literature to derive lessons about the possible implications of public sector automation and outline some principles that agencies can use to assist in their decision-making about whether to invest in automation of particular processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Automation
• artificial intelligence
• robotics
• outsourcing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2021.1972681.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helen Dickinson

Helen Dickinson is Professor of Public Service Research and Director of the Public Service Research Group at the School of Business, USNW Canberra. Her expertise is in public services, particularly in relation to topics such as governance, policy implementation and stewardship of 4^th industrial revolution technologies. Helen has published 19 books and over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics and is also a frequent commentator within the mainstream media. She is co-editor of the Journal of Health, Organization and Management and the Australian Journal of Public Administration. Helen is also a board member of the Consumer Policy Research Centre. In 2015 Helen was made a Victorian Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and in 2019 awarded a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She has worked with a range of different levels of government, community organizations and private organizations in Australia, UK, New Zealand and Europe on research and consultancy programmes.

Sophie Yates

Sophie Yates is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Public Service Research Group, School of Business, UNSW Canberra, and was previously a Research Fellow at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Sophie has published on various public administration and public policy topics, and has won several national and international awards for her PhD and publications. She is on the Editorial Board of Public Management Review and is the Social Media Editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration.