Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Sustainable Public Service Delivery in Nigeria

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming governance and public service delivery across the globe, offering innovative solutions for enhancing efficiency, transparency, and sustainability. In Nigeria, a nation with complex socioeconomic challenges and entrenched bureaucratic inefficiencies, the integration of AI into public services presents significant opportunities and obstacles. This paper examines the impact of AI on sustainable public service delivery in Nigeria, highlighting its potential benefits, such as automation of routine administrative tasks, predictive analytics for policy design, enhanced resource allocation, improved transparency, and citizen-centric services. It also interrogates the challenges hindering adoption, including infrastructural deficits, limited digital literacy, ethical concerns, resistance to change, and data privacy issues. The paper relies on content analysis as its method of data analysis with emphasis on secondary data, anchored on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Governance Theory. The study establishes that while AI has the capacity to revolutionize governance in Nigeria, its effectiveness depends on institutional readiness, policy frameworks, and strategic investments in human capital. The paper concludes that deliberate efforts in policy implementation, capacity building, infrastructure development, and ethical governance are essential to harness AI for sustainable public service delivery in Nigeria.