Digital Borders, Cognitive Constraints: Exploring Perceptions of AI Legitimacy in European Border Management

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and digital security infrastructures in the European Union has intensified public debate about legitimacy, trust, and democratic oversight. This paper examines how citizens evaluate the legitimacy of AI-enabled governance tools, with a particular focus on public attitudes toward emerging digital border-management systems such as electronic travel authorization schemes. Drawing on mixed methods strategy combinig experimental and qualitative research, our paper explores how individuals assess legitimacy when interacting with automated or semi-automated EU authorities. We highlight how evaluations of legitimacy can rely on a range of cognitive shortcuts that are rooted in attitudes towards politics, technology, and institutions more broadly. Situating these attitudes within the EU’s wider AI governance framework, the paper demonstrates how public opinion shapes—and is shaped by—the digital transformation of public administration.