Lecture
AI in the Public Sector: Not Just Plug and Play
- Madalina Busuioc
- Date
- Thursday 12 February 2026
- Time
- Location
- Kamerlingh Onnes Building
Steenschuur 25
2311 ES Leiden - Room
- A1.44 - Lorentzzaal
Abstract of the lecture
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms across government stands to have unprecedented impact on public governance, our established guardrails and public values. The technology affects citizens’ lives in consequential ways and shapes their day-to-day experience of government. Public institutions, too, are being reshaped in fundamental ways, as algorithmic logics increasingly encroach upon administrative domains that were once the exclusive purview of civil servants and domain experts. While the rise of AI is primarily justified by the promise of enhanced capacity and efficiency gains, unless carefully managed, these potential gains come at high institutional cost when it comes to our core values and legal protections. Significant concerns arise in this regard concerning AI’s potential to exacerbate inequities and discrimination, and to erode core public values that the government is meant to embody. Relatedly, AI raises critical questions regarding the integrity of our established accountability safeguards and to what extent these are still fit-for-purpose in an algorithmic context, demanding urgent attention to institutional innovations needed to bolster them.
While there is growing recognition of the need to engage responsibly with the technology to leverage it for public good, in a context of high enthusiasm and continued “hype”, AI is becoming a “go to” solution for many organisations— irrespective of task and institutional fit, including in high-stakes domains for citizens. Drawing on examples across government, the talk discusses key aspects and considerations that get in the way of responsible use when it comes to governmental deployment of AI.
About the Speaker
Prof. dr. Madalina Busuioc is Professor of Public Governance at VU Amsterdam. Her work on AI centres on theoretical and empirical innovation in considering the impact of AI for our public institutions. She is founder and co-Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Digital Governance (AI-DG) Lab, a forum for practitioner engagement at VU Amsterdam. She initiated, designed and directs the VU MSc program Public Administration: Artificial Intelligence and Governance. The program responds to significant knowledge and skill gaps in society, and the need to train students—future civil servants and policy-makers—to be demanding users of AI technologies. Her work on public governance has received accolades such as a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grant, best article awards, and competitive fellowships like the EUI Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship from the European University Institute for a project on AI governance.