Ambition, Capacity, Reality, Insights, and Prospects

Shanghai has solid capacities to implement its ambitious plans for AI in the public sector. These capacities are mobilized in a coordinated, systemic, and proactive strategy, which is manifested in three major policy initiatives that are actively fostering the use of AI in the public sector. Namely: the Government Online-Offline Shanghai, the Single Platform for Urban Management, and the AI pilot application scenarios. The analysis of these case studies highlights their strengths and limitations in deploying AI in the public sector. It shows that these policy initiatives have improved the provision of public services by successfully integrating AI in public sector activities and have contributed to spurring the diffusion of public sector AI applications in Shanghai. The significance of these findings goes beyond the study of Shanghai, as they can be used to obtain an improved understanding of some key research topics identified by the literature on AI in the public sector. By assessing the advantages and shortcomings of Shanghai’s AI strategy in light of the broader findings of public sector AI scholarship, it is possible to identify the lessons that can be learnt from the experience of the municipality, the unanswered questions, and derive useful elements to gauge the possible development trajectories of public sector AI applications in Shanghai.