Examining public managers' competencies of artificial intelligence implementation in local government: A quantitative study

The implementation of artificial intelligence in the public sector is a fast-evolving tendency in recent years. Despite much research on AI in government- ethics, algorithms, chatbots, AI systems-implement- there is very little data and understanding of the public manager's perception, adaptation, challenges, and resistance on this topic. What are the skills and knowledge needed to implement AI in the government? This research aims to investigate public managers' competencies to face AI challenges in the public sector. A survey was conducted among 38 key public managers from the government of the State of Mexico in the central region to assess their perceptions of AI. Using the competences for civil servants' framework from Balbo di Vinadio et al. (2022), we analyze three competences: (1) Digital Management and Execution (2) Digital Planning and Design (3) Data use and governance and their levels of. The findings point out that there is a lack of skills, and the competence of digital management and execution is the one that explains better this perception of AI in the local government.