Public administrators receive conflicting signals on the transformative benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the counternarratives of AI’s ethical impacts on society and democracy. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the factors that affect the sensemaking of AI benefits in Canadian public administration. A mixed-method research design using PLS-SEM (n = 272) and interviews (n = 38) tests and explains the effect of institutional and consultant pressures on the perceived benefits of AI use. The quantitative study shows only service coercive pressures have a significant effect on perceived benefits of AI use and consultant pressures are significant in generating all institutional pressures. The qualitative study explains the results and highlights the underlying mechanisms. The key conclusion is that in the earlier stages of AI adoption, demand pull is the main driver rather than technology push. A processual sensemaking model is developed extending the theory on institutions and sensemaking. And several managerial implications are discussed.

关于人工智能 (AI) 的变革性好处以及人工智能对社会和民主的道德影响的相反说法，公共管理者收到了相互矛盾的信号。在此背景下，本文探讨了影响加拿大公共行政部门对人工智能益处的理解的因素。使用 PLS-SEM ( n  = 272) 和访谈 ( n = 38)的混合方法研究设计 测试并解释了机构和顾问压力对人工智能使用的感知效益的影响。定量研究表明，只有服务强制压力对人工智能使用的感知效益有显着影响，而顾问压力对产生所有制度压力都很重要。定性研究解释了结果并强调了潜在的机制。关键结论是，在人工智能采用的早期阶段，需求拉动是主要驱动力，而不是技术推动。发展了过程意义建构模型，扩展了制度和意义建构理论。并讨论了一些管理意义。