The digital transformation of government presents both profound opportunities and complex challenges that are reshaping the public sector landscape. As public organizations strive to harness emerging technologies – such as AI, Big data analytics, Blockchain, and digital platforms – to deliver public services that are more responsive, transparent, and inclusive, they must also grapple with a host of pressing concerns (Seidel et al., 2025; Yoo et al., 2024). These include safeguarding data privacy in an era of unprecedented information flows, ensuring algorithmic accountability to prevent biases and discrimination, adapting traditional policymaking processes to be more agile and data-driven, and addressing growing societal anxieties around trust in digital systems and widening digital inequalities that risk leaving vulnerable populations behind (Acemoglu, 2025; Alaimo & Kallinikos, 2024; Wenzelburger et al., 2024).
Importantly, digital government today is no longer simply about automating administrative tasks or implementing isolated information systems within public agencies. It requires a fundamental rethinking of governance itself. This means redesigning institutional processes, reconfiguring organizational structures, and, crucially, reshaping the relationship between citizens, governments, and the digital technologies that increasingly mediate their interactions (Faraj et al., 2021; Kronblad et al., 2024). Digital transformation is as much about culture and power as it is about technology. It challenges us to question who designs these systems, who controls them, and who ultimately benefits from them (Alaimo & Kallinikos, 2024; Zuboff, 2022).
In this rapidly evolving landscape, there is an urgent need for a vibrant, interdisciplinary community that brings together researchers, policymakers, technologists, and practitioners. Such a community must not only track and analyse technological advancements but also critically engage with their broader implications, including ethical, social, and political dimensions (Yoo et al., 2024). Only through this collaborative exchange of ideas and experiences can we develop actionable solutions to the complex, real-world problems that digital government initiatives face.
Digital government is poised to become the next significant frontier in the field of Information Systems (IS) (Kronblad et al., 2024; Seidel et al., 2025). It sits at a dynamic intersection of technology, public policy, and society, offering rich, high-impact research opportunities with the potential to shape the future of governance at local, national, and global levels. As governments around the world accelerate their digital agendas – embracing smart cities, digital identities, AI-driven public services, and open government data – the need for rigorous IS scholarship that can guide, critique, and inspire these transformations has never been more critical. IS researchers are uniquely positioned to question assumptions, surface hidden risks, and propose frameworks that ensure these technological shifts serve the public good.
The Association for Information Systems Special Interest Group on Electronic Government (AIS SIG e-Gov) plays a vital role in cultivating this essential community. It serves as a key platform for fostering international connections, facilitating the exchange of diverse perspectives, and promoting innovative, impactful research. Through its conferences, workshops, and collaborative networks, the SIG e-Gov seeks to support the design and implementation of digital government solutions that are not only operationally efficient but also ethically sound, socially inclusive, and institutionally resilient. By building bridges between academia and practice, the AIS SIG e-Gov is committed to advancing a digital government agenda that truly serves all members of society.
References
Acemoglu, D. (2025). Nobel Lecture: Institutions, Technology, and Prosperity. American Economic Review, 115(6), 1709–1748.
Alaimo, C., & Kallinikos, J. (2024). Data rules: Reinventing the market economy. MIT Press.
Faraj, S., Renno, W., & Bhardwaj, A. (2021). Unto the breach: What the COVID-19 pandemic exposes about digitalization. Information and Organization, 31(1), 100337.
Kronblad, C., Essén, A., & Mähring, M. (2024). When Justice is Blind to Algorithms: Multilayered Blackboxing of Algorithmic Decision Making in the Public Sector. MIS Quarterly, 48(4), 1637-1662.
Seidel, S., Frick, C. J., & vom Brocke, J. (2025). Regulating emerging technologies: prospective sensemaking through abstraction and elaboration. MIS Quarterly, 49(1), 179-204.
Wenzelburger, G., König, P. D., Felfeli, J., & Achtziger, A. (2024). Algorithms in the public sector. Why context matters. Public Administration, 102(1), 40-60.
Yoo, Y., Henfridsson, O., Kallinikos, J., Gregory, R., Burtch, G., Chatterjee, S., & Sarker, S. (2024). The Next Frontiers of Digital Innovation Research. Information Systems Research, 35(4), 1507-1523.
Zuboff, S. (2022). Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy? The Death Match of Institutional Orders and the Politics of Knowledge in Our Information Civilization. Organization Theory, 3(3), 26317877221129290.