Governing AI Adoption in Government Administration: An Integrative Framework for AI Governance and Data Privacy

Abstract

This paper aims to develop an integrated framework for governing the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in government administration by linking AI adoption with governance, data privacy, transparency, accountability, workforce readiness, and regulatory controls spanning the system's lifecycle. The paper employs an integrative review of recent literature and a comparative analysis of policies and regulatory documents, focusing on Saudi Arabia as the primary context while drawing upon relevant experiences from the international models. The analysis reveals that successful AI adoption in government administration depends not only on technical and organizational readiness but also requires integrating data protection and privacy, algorithmic transparency, accountability, human oversight, and workforce capacity building into the adoption process itself. Furthermore, the paper highlights the importance of transitioning from general AI governance to operational protocols that define requirements for pre-adoption, design or procurement, testing, deployment, and monitoring and auditing. Accordingly, the paper proposes the "Integrated Framework for Responsible Government AI Adoption" (IF-RGA), which links use-case readiness, data privacy, transparency and accountability, workforce readiness, and risk-based governance across the lifecycle. The framework provides a conceptual foundation that can inform the development of government policies and future studies on AI adoption maturity, particularly within the Saudi and Gulf contexts.