Assessing the value of artificial intelligence (AI) in governmental public procurement
| Date | 24 January 2025 |
| Pages | 120-139 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-05-2024-0057 |
| Published date | 24 January 2025 |
| Author | Per Erik Andersson,Katarina Arbin,Christopher Rosenqvist |
Assessing the value of artificial
intelligence (AI) in governmental
public procurement
Per Erik Andersson
Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics,
Stockholm, Sweden
Katarina Arbin
Department of Industrial Management, Industrial Design and
Mechanical Engineering, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden, and
Christopher Rosenqvist
Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics,
Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The main purpose of thisstudy is to enhance knowledge regarding the early stages of planningfor
and adopting artificialintelligence (AI) in governmental publicprocurement. While there are numerous studies
on AI and procurementin private companies, there is limited informationon AI and public procurement.
Design/methodology/approach –The empirical data consists of information obtained from 18 semi-
structuredinterviews with procurement managers and individualsinvolved in the development of procurement
at governmental agencies. Additionally, a workshop was conductedwith the respondents to discuss and
validate the study’sfindings.
Findings –Findings indicate a generally low level of AI maturity in previous research and within the inv estigated
governmental agencies. The perceived benefits of AI primarily revolve around improved operational capabilities,
potential for certain process efficiencies and the ability to enhance monitoring through AI. Various challenges
related to organizational, process, technological and data management were highlighted. Findings also indicate that
perceivedbenefits and value created by AI can beviewed from a short-term perspective to along-term perspective.
Social implications –The study provides insights into societal values that can be achieved using AI in
public procurement.
Originality/value –This study provides a new perspective on AI in publicprocurement by focusingon
governmental agencies. It explores the perceived benefits, interests and challenges associated with AI
implementation in public procurement. Furthermore, this study discusses the potential outcomes of
incorporatingAI in public procurement and the impact it may have on the values created by the public service,
both short-and long term.
Keywords Public sector, Procurement, Digital, Information and communications technology,Value
Paper type Research paper
© Per Erik Andersson, Katarina Arbinand Christopher Rosenqvist. Published by Emerald Publishing
Limited.This article is publishedunder the Creative CommonsAttribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone
may reproduce, distribute,translate and create derivativeworks of this article (for both commercial and
non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full
terms ofthis license may be seenat http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Funding: Wallenberg Foundation; MMW 2020.0087.
JOPP
25,1
120
Received22 May2024
Revised30 August 2024
30 September 2024
Accepted3 January 2025
Journalof Public Procurement
Vol.25 No. 1, 2025
pp. 120-139
EmeraldPublishing Limited
1535-0118
DOI 10.1108/JOPP-05-2024-0057
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1535-0118.htm
Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) has beenidentified as having significant potential in transforming
procurement operations and enhancing value creation in private business procurement
activities (Constant et al., 2022;Cui et al., 2022;Allal-Chérif et al., 2021;Rejeb et al.,
2018). Kosmol et al. (2019) suggeststhat digitalization, including AI, can provide additional
value to procurement. Similarly, Rejeb et al. (2018) state in their technologyreview that “the
combined usage of robotics alongwith artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
clears the way for significantcontributions to the field of procurement”(p.79).
Despite the increasing importanceof procurement for governments and countries, there is
a limited number of studies on AI and public procurement(Sanchez-Graells, 2024a;Siciliani
et al., 2023;Abrahamsson and Behr, 2022;Nowicki, 2020). Numerousstudies have focused
on AI and private sector procurement (Meyer and Henke,2023;Guida et al., 2023;Constant
et al., 2022;Cui et al., 2022;Allal-Chérif et al., 2021;Kosmol et al., 2019;Rejeb et al.,
2018), but few have specifically examinedAI and its impact on public procurement. The use
of AI in public administration including public procurement is riddled with ethical tensions
of fairness, transparency, privacy and more, and a large knowledge gap remains in
understanding AI tensions as they relate to public value creation (Madanand Ashok, 2023).
Additionally, studies on AI and procurement often lack detailed qualitative empirical data
(Guida et al.,2023;Allal-Chérif et al., 2021). Therefore, there is a need for more knowledge
and qualitative empiricaldata to advance the field of AI in public procurement.
The implementation of AI in public procurement presents numerous opportunities and
benefits, however, like public management in general, it also comes with apparent risks,
obstacles and inertia (Wirtz et al.,2021;Wirtz and Muller, 2019;Wirtz et al., 2019). The
adoption of AI in private business procurement operations is undergoing significant changes
(Allal-Chérif et al., 2021), and its potential for public procurement has also been recognized
(Nowicki, 2020). Nevertheless, research on AI in publicprocurement is still in its early stages,
and more knowledge is needed about initial phases of assessing the value, planning for and
adopting AI in public procurement (Nowicki, 2020). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to
develop knowledge regarding the perceived benefits of AI in public procurement and the
challenges associated with its implementation, as well as how AI can contribute to the creation
of value. In response to the call for in-depth qualitative studies (Wirtz et al.,2021), this research
utilizes a series of in-depth interviews with procurement professionals at ten governmental
agencies. Building upon research on AI in public management, public procurement studies and
recent research on AI in procurement, the study is guided by two research questions:
RQ1.What are the initially perceived benefits of AI in public procurement and how do
they relate to the generalvalues created by public procurement?
RQ2.What are the challengeswhen implementing and trying to achieve these benefits?
The purpose of this article is to address gaps in public management research on AI and in
public and general procurement research, where there is a need for empirical studies to enhance
understanding of the reasons behind AI adoption, implementation processes, challenges and
effects (e.g. Guida et al.,2023). In this study AI is viewed as a multidisciplinary technology
with the capability to integrate cognition, machine learning, emotion recognition, human-
computer interaction, data storage and decision-making (Zhang and Lu, 2021;Lu, 2019). The
study is based on qualitative interviews with representatives from 10 governmental agencies’
procurement functions, along with a workshop involving participants from the in terviews tudy.
The article is structured as follows: first a literature review is presented where we report on
previous studies within the field. This is followed by a presentation of theoretical framework
Journal of Public
Procurement
121
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