Making Sense of AI Benefits: A Mixed-method Study in Canadian Public Administration
通过问卷调查（272人）和访谈（38人），研究了加拿大公共行政中影响公务员对AI收益理解的因素，发现服务强制压力和咨询压力是主要驱动因素。
Abstract Public administrators receive conflicting signals on the transformative benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the counternarratives of AI’s ethical impacts on society and democracy. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the factors that affect the sensemaking of AI benefits in Canadian public administration. A mixed-method research design using PLS-SEM ( n = 272) and interviews ( n = 38) tests and explains the effect of institutional and consultant pressures on the perceived benefits of AI use. The quantitative study shows only service coercive pressures have a significant effect on perceived benefits of AI use and consultant pressures are significant in generating all institutional pressures. The qualitative study explains the results and highlights the underlying mechanisms. The key conclusion is that in the earlier stages of AI adoption, demand pull is the main driver rather than technology push. A processual sensemaking model is developed extending the theory on institutions and sensemaking. And several managerial implications are discussed.