Proactivity in e-government and service design aims to revolutionize digital public services by having the government reach out to citizens based on data, life changes, or predicted events. This could streamline internal processes and enhance citizen well-being. However, the success of proactive services depends on their incorporation, design, and implementation. Values play a crucial role in these processes and are influenced by politics, governance, design processes, social factors, legislation, and technical possibilities, potentially leading to value conflicts.

This thesis examines the contextual conditions shaping the management of value conflicts in digital proactive public services, focusing on the Dutch Persoonlijke Regelingen Assistent (PRA) project, which aims to centralize Dutch regulations and provide proactive notifications and assistance. The project, still in its design phase, offers insights into how contextual conditions impact proactive application development. These findings can be extrapolated to broader proactive public services contexts.

The thesis uses existing literature to identify crucial values and assess their manifestation in proactive applications. It employs the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) approach to construct value hierarchies, identifying conflicting and enabling values. Strategies for handling value conflicts are evaluated and extended with public policy design strategies, highlighting the influence of contextual conditions on value conflicts and their resolution.

A framework of conditions was established to illustrate their impact on value conflicts and strategies. Political conditions, such as ideology-based values and funding priorities, influence dominant values. Governance conditions affect practical matters like funding, project timelines, and stakeholder involvement. Procedural conditions in the design process involve key trade-offs. Legal and technical conditions are crucial for data processing applications, impacting privacy and proactivity conflicts. Social conditions determine the application's reception and effectiveness, with sensitivity to expectations, stigma, and readiness being vital.

Public organizations must set realistic objectives, consider contextual conditions, and anticipate outcomes at each step. A chosen strategy for managing value conflicts from the start can ease decision-making. Evaluated strategies have varying practicality and benefits, complicated by the context-dependency of value conflicts. A learning strategy is recommended, involving multiple strategies and stakeholder coordination to gather practical insights.

To formalize this process, appointing an organization at the meso-level of governance is suggested. This organization would evaluate project queries based on past cases and value conflict consequences, bridging the gap between macro-level government legislation and micro-level standards. This body of knowledge would guide responsible innovation in the public sector, enabling designers, policymakers, and scientists to learn from each other’s cases and contribute collectively to progress.

In summary, proactivity in digital public services holds promise but requires careful consideration of contextual conditions and value conflicts. A meso-level organization can provide the necessary guidance and knowledge to navigate these challenges effectively.

As stated this research aims to provide insights into the criteria and trade-offs that determine a responsible level of automation when automating decision-making by civil servants through artificial intelligence within smaller public organisations, such as municipalities, in the Netherlands. Making use of expert interviews and vignette experiments in order to provide guidance to those willing to experiment with responsible AI implementation in the public domain.