Technological Readiness as a Driver of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Public Administration and Auditing: Serial Mediation by Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of technological readiness on public employees' AI adoption, considering the serial mediating roles of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Data were collected from 409 public employees in Türkiye who voluntarily participated in the study through an online survey. The obtained data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, IBM SPSS AMOS, and PROCESS Macro v4.2. The findings reveal that technological readiness directly and significantly affects AI adoption. Furthermore, the results show that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness play a serial multiple mediating role in this relationship. The findings suggest that strengthening public employees' perceptions of technology, especially perceived ease of use and usefulness, is critical for increasing AI adoption in public administration and auditing. In this respect, the study contributes to the development of strategies for the effective implementation of AI applications and to transformation policies that center on employees' perceptions of technology.