The Quest for the Contract: How Swedish SMEs Adopt AI as a Strategy to Navigate Challenges in Public Sector Sales

Sammanfattning

Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face challenges in public sector sales, including complex procurement procedures, limited resources, and restricted access to strategic insights. While research highlight external interventions, emerging literature emphasizes the need for internal, self-driven strategies to improve SME performance in the public market. Simultaneously, artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promise in optimizing private sector sales; however, little is known about how SMEs adopt AI as public sector suppliers. This study investigates how Swedish SMEs adopt AI as a sociotechnical process in public sector sales and examines the resulting organizational outcomes. Guided by sociotechnical systems (STS) theory, the study utilizes 19 semi-structured interviews with public sector sales leaders from 19 Swedish SMEs. Findings reveal that adoption initiates informally, driven by individuals addressing operational inefficiencies. Adoption is supported by superusers, information-sharing, demonstrations, and experiential learning, facilitated by AI access, and encouraging AI exploration, questions, and learning. Integration is challenged by cognitive, emotional, and organizational barriers shaped by societal narratives and internal constraints. Many firms remain in early adoption stages, and formal role redesign is rare, yet successful integration improves bid-writing efficiency, opportunity qualification, and market participation. Over time, these gains enhance bid quality, strategic focus, and employee well-being. However, risks such as AI overreliance and diminished human input are noted. By connecting outcomes to public sector sales challenges, the study shows how decentralized, human-centered AI adoption can help SMEs navigate barriers to the public market, including information access, opportunity detection, decision-making, administrative burdens, resource requirements, compliance, and psychological barriers.