Public Sector Governance and Financial Resilience in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming organisational operations across both private and public sectors. In the public sector, AI offers significant opportunities to improve efficiency, service delivery, and data-driven decision-making. However, its adoption also creates substantial governance and financial challenges. Local councils and public organisations face increasing pressures relating to budget constraints, financial sustainability, transparency in accounting and reporting, and workforce stability. The integration of AI technologies may reshape budgeting priorities, alter accountability structures, and introduce new risks related to data governance and financial reporting. Despite growing interest in AI governance, little empirical research examines how AI adoption affects financial resilience, funding structures, reporting practices, and job security in local governments. Understanding these challenges is particularly important in the UK context, where many councils face severe fiscal pressures.

This project aims to explore how the public sector navigates AI adoption while maintaining financial resilience, transparency, and workforce stability.

1. Examine how AI adoption influences financial resilience and resource allocation in local councils.
2. Investigate the implications of AI implementation for accounting, reporting practices, and governance structures.
3. Assess how AI adoption affects job security, workforce transformation, and skills requirements in the public sector.

Research questions:
1. How does the adoption of AI technologies affect financial resilience and funding strategies in local councils?
2. What challenges does AI adoption create for public sector accounting, reporting transparency, and governance mechanisms?
3. How does AI implementation influence job security, workforce restructuring, and skills requirements in the public sector?

Research methodology

The project will employ a mixed-methods research design, combining surveys and semi-structured interviews to capture both broad patterns and in-depth insights.

Contributions

The project will have significant contributions to literature, policy and practice in relation to public sector accounting and governance, financial resilience, technology and employment.

The project will be supervised by a rich experienced supervision team, who have extensive experience in supervising PhD candidates and a wide knowledge in areas of the public sector and financial resilience.

Supervisors:

Dr Thao Nguyen

Dr Bernard Dom