Public procurement plays a central role in shaping the digital systems used across society, influencing not only what technologies are acquired but also how they are designed, implemented, and experienced in practice. Public procurement aims to ensure legality, cost-effectiveness, safety, data protection, and alignment with public values (e.g., fairness, transparency, and accountability), while also managing long-term responsibilities such as maintenance. Despite this, perspectives from HCI are often only weakly represented in procurement processes, where technical, legal, and economic criteria tend to dominate. As a result, critical related aspects such as usability, user involvement, and the work environment can lead to risks being under-specified or overlooked, particularly in complex domains such as healthcare and AI-driven systems.  

This workshop addresses this gap by exploring how HCI perspectives can be more effectively embedded in public procurement. The organizers all have roles and responsibilities in the AI-PROCARE project, which is Nord-Forsk-funded. It is a comparative research project examining how public procurement of AI systems in tax-funded healthcare systems in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland shapes work environments, professional roles, and organizational conditions. The project focuses specifically on public procurement as a sociotechnical design process: that is, how public actors specify requirements, assess risks, allocate responsibility and govern AI systems before and during acquisition. Public procurement refers to the formal process through which public healthcare organizations plan, specify, purchase and govern goods and services using public funds. In tax-funded healthcare systems, procurement is the primary mechanism through which digital technologies, including AI systems, enter clinical practice. Examples of publicly procured digital technologies in healthcare that may incorporate AI include clinical decision support systems (CDSS), electronic health record (EHR) systems, AI-supported medical documentation and speech recognition tools, as well as scheduling and resource management systems.   

Drawing on insights from the AI-PROCARE project and participants’ own experiences, the workshop creates a space to examine current practices, identify challenges, and discuss opportunities for integrating user-centered approaches and methods earlier in the lifecycle of digital systems. By focusing on procurement as a strategic intervention point, the workshop highlights how HCI perspectives can contribute not only to better system design but also to improved working conditions and overall well-being.  

The workshop aims to share experiences across research, industry, and public-sector stakeholders, identify gaps and challenges in current procurement practices, explore strategies to strengthen user involvement and address work environment considerations, and co-develop actionable ideas, frameworks, or guidelines for integrating HCI into procurement processes. This workshop addresses an important but underexplored intersection between Human-Computer Interaction and public procurement, highlighting how HCI perspectives can influence digital systems early in their lifecycle rather than being applied retrospectively. By focusing on procurement as a strategic entry point, the workshop contributes to improving user experiences, work environments, and overall well-being, particularly in complex domains such as healthcare and AI. It also creates a space for exchange among researchers, practitioners, and public-sector stakeholders, enabling participants to share experiences, identify challenges, and explore practical ways to strengthen user involvement and address work environment considerations in procurement processes.