Gartner has revealed what it considers the top five technology trends that governments across the world will need to grapple with in 2024.
The list reflects the rise of new cyber security threats and disruption from the adoption of AI, as well as growing instability in the global economy, which are all said to be putting greater pressure on governments.
Top of the list is adaptive security: Gartner predicts that by 2028, multi-agent AI in threat detection and incident response will rise from 5% to 70% of AI implementations, augmenting rather than replacing staff.
"Government CIOs and leaders need to overcome any lingering resistance to the adoption of adaptive security by linking its value to broader organizational objectives, such as digital innovation and transformation, national security objectives and operational resilience," says Todd Kimbriel, VP analyst at Gartner.
Gartner also lists the digital identity ecosystem, which includes user authentication, unique citizen or organization identifiers, and credential verification such as smartphone-based identity wallets.
Government CIOs can build a stronger digital identity strategy by building on existing use cases and partnerships to break out of traditional sector silos and bring greater value for citizens, government, and businesses, the analyst house concludes.
| 1. | Adaptive Security |
| 2. | Digital identity ecosystems |
| 3. | AI for decision intelligence |
| 4. | Digital platform agility |
| 5. | Programmatic data management |
It also says that, by 2026, more than 70% of government agencies will use machine learning, analytics and generative AI to enhance human decision making through tools to support improved government service delivery.
"These tools will need to be subject to careful governance, so it’s important government CIOs drive AI adoption and governance policies throughout the organization," says Kimbriel.
"They must develop a strategy that incorporates these policies with a focus on desired outcomes, then take a continuous assurance approach to ensure they are maintained after implementation."
Platform cloud-based solutions also make the list, with Gartner recommending that government CIOs implement a multicloud strategy to maximize these opportunities. Cloud-native capabilities in these platform solutions provide greater cost control and faster time to value, it says.
Finally, government leaders are demanding increased use of data for decision making and planning through programmatic data management: a systematic and scalable approach to enable enterprise-wide use of data assets, which is being advanced by automation platforms and their ability to incorporate AI capabilities.
According to Gartner, more than 60% of government organizations will prioritize investment in business process automation by 2026, up from 35% in 2022.
"Data remains the basis of decision making in government, and the growing proliferation of AI re-emphasizes the need for government CIOs to enhance the quality and efficiency of data at scale by improving the rules and structures that govern it," says Kimbriel.
