Adopting chatbots to enhance public services : an appraisal of the Maltese governments' plans and initiatives

Abstract

One of the biggest trends that hit the 21st century is the technology effect—starting from the first essential technologies that had their remarkable impact in the past, moving on to the emerging and disruptive waves of change we see every day. Notwithstanding the significant influence of technology disruption is changing sectors, including the private and the public. Now, governments are competing on an international level affected by technologies in enhancing public services due to the digital change not only in the private, but also in the public service. Digitising governments to best manage such technologies is one of the best government characteristics exist. It is again the technology effect that changing government’s plans and strategies for the short and the long term. The literature shows little when comparing Malta to the other European countries adopting disruptive technology to improve public services. On the other hand, the literature reveals more about other EU countries that are already using a noticeable number of disruptive technologies to improve public service delivery, relying on technological advancements. Due to the difficulty in locating scholarly literature on the Maltese government's initiatives on this topic, the researcher decided to broaden the research approach to investigate the adoption of Chatbots technology in enhancing public service delivery, presenting the case of Malta with what is done so far after the initial initiatives done in the AI strategy years ago. The study will employ both document analysis and thematic analysis to finally present the investigated case of Malta, using a qualitative approach to collect primary data through in-depth interviews. This approach is used to explore, investigate the phenomenon, and fill knowledge gaps in the literature by answering this study's research questions.