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

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.