INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT, VISIBLE ACCOUNTABILITY: A GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK FOR PROACTIVE PUBLIC SERVICES IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

The digitalisation of public services reduces travel and expands remote access, but it may preserve or redistribute administrative burden when citizens remain responsible for identifying the competent authority, repeating information, carrying documents across agencies and coordinating fragmented procedures. This article develops and critically examines a governance framework for proactive public services that connects the reduction of bureaucratic friction with interoperability, inter-institutional orchestration, selective use of artificial intelligence and accountability. The study adopts a qualitative, theoretical-conceptual design based on a focused literature review, document analysis and institutional comparison of Estonia, Denmark, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Brazil, with the European Union as a transversal regulatory reference. The findings indicate that proactivity does not require artificial intelligence: digital identity, trusted data, interoperability and deterministic rules can sustain services initiated by public administrations. Cross-case evidence also shows that reducing visible interactions relocates part of the complexity to institutional back offices, increasing the need for traceability, contestability and clearly assigned responsibility. The framework organises four interdependent functions, identity and context, trusted data and interoperability, decision and orchestration, execution and interaction, under transversal accountability, and proposes a deliberative matrix to calibrate degrees of proactivity according to legality, data quality, impact on rights, reversibility and review mechanisms. In Brazil, the framework applies to an agenda that already contains legal foundations and operational proactive services, while remaining constrained by federal heterogeneity, data governance and integration capacity. Digital government maturity should therefore be assessed by its capacity to remove unnecessary friction without weakening institutional safeguards.