Follow ZDNET: Add us as a favorite source On Google.
ZDNET Highlights
- The adoption of agentic AI in government is now a leadership mandate.
- 82% of government organizations have already adopted AI agents.
- 71% of government agencies plan to increase use of agentic AI in 2026-2027
In government, agentic AI is no longer in the experimental stage; According to, it is a leadership mandate IDC Research Focused on public sector preparedness for agentic AI.
IDC found that many government agencies are implementing agent-driven workflows, but few have moved beyond pilots. The rate of adoption of agentic AI in government is due to several factors:
- budgetary pressure
- Sovereignty and ComplianceIncluding requirements for data resistance, algorithm transparency and accountability
- workforce disruption, Which points to a skills gap in cybersecurity and machine learning operations
- civic expectations For faster, more personalized and equitable services
Also: Scaling Agentic AI Demands a Strong Data Foundation – 4 Steps to Take First
Becoming an Agent Government – A Leadership Mandate
IDC research shows that the transformation of government with agentic AI – autonomous digital actors that can reason and take action – involves three focus areas: operational orchestration, citizen service delivery, and decision support for policy and planning.
Operational orchestration refers to agent-driven systems that coordinate multi-step workflows across departments, improving the speed and scale of service delivery. Citizen service delivery is enhanced with agents who can provide proactive, context-aware and personalized interactions. Agent AI can also use synthetic data and model scenarios to enhance the planning and delivery of new services by providing more relevant information about stakeholders’ needs.
Also: How Google reimagined Gemini Enterprise for the agentic age – here’s what’s new
Recent research shows that agentic AI scaling is based on a strong data foundation, including the ability of government agencies to identify high-impact workflows for agentization and the implementation of data architectures for AI agents. Additionally, government agencies must ensure that data quality and accessibility remain intact. Finally, government agencies must create an operations and governance model for agentic AI – it’s about rethinking how work is done.
IDC estimates By 2026, 70% of Global 2000 company CEOs will focus AI ROI on growth, driving C-suite efforts to grow revenues and reimagining business models without increasing headcount. The financial pressure and momentum to rapidly adopt agentic AI in the private sector also exists in the public sector.
Adoption of AI agents accelerated
More than 8 in 10 (82%) government organizations have already adopted AI agents, according to a new IDC Study It is based on a survey of 118 leaders and decision makers from federal, state, and local governments in the US. The study found that 60% of government leaders believe the adoption of AI agents is lagging the private sector.
Also: 4 new roles will lead the agentic AI revolution – here’s what they’re needed for
Government leaders see the biggest benefit of adopting digital labor as a better response to citizens’ demand for faster, smarter, and more personalized services. The vast majority (83%) of government leaders see AI agents as key to transforming government agency structures. Here are the main findings of the IDC study focused on AI agent adoption in government:
-
Adoption trajectory for AI agents: 71% of government agencies plan to increase use of agentic AI in 2026-2027
-
Changes in the way of working: 94% of government leaders believe that AI agents will fundamentally change the nature of work. It is likely that the operational responsibilities of management agencies will increasingly be handled by AI agents.
-
Impact of AI on society: 56% of government leaders believe AI will have a greater impact than the Internet and cloud computing; 51% say it will have more impact than PCs; And 46% say it will be even more transformative than smartphones.
-
Key Productivity Benefits with AI Agents: 85% of leaders estimate that AI agents save their workforce up to 45% of time per week.
-
Mission-critical use of AI agents: Fraud, waste and abuse detection (44%) and cybersecurity threat management (36%) were identified as the top mission-specific use cases. Non-mission-critical uses of AI agents include social benefits management (24%), public safety (22%), and defense-specific applications (22%).
agent government of 2030
Nearly 9 in 10 government leaders (89%) see a hybrid workforce in government by 2030 – humans and AI agents working together. Nearly 3 out of 4 leaders expect that every human employee who now manages subordinates will also manage AI agents by 2030. Entirely new teams and departments will be created that will include AI agents.
What impact does the greater adoption of AI agents in government have on human labor? The good news is that 59% of government leaders expect to see an increase in the size of some teams and departments, including more need for leadership opportunities. In fact, 77% of people see AI agents empowering more human employees to work on higher-value and more satisfying missions. Government leaders view agentic AI adoption not only as a technological transformation but also as a relational transformation with an emphasis on human-centered soft skills.
Also: Scaling agentic AI means trusting your data – which is what most CDOs are investing in
What types of roles are likely to be the focus of recruitment for government agencies? Over the next five years, government leaders are looking to hire more AI management and strategy domain experts, IT and technical support, and AI governance and ethics experts. Government leaders see the most disruptive impact of AI agents in IT, administrative and clerical, and management and leadership roles. The keys to success will be AI and data literacy, operational integration with AI, and responsible and ethical use of AI.
The IDC study shows that the next two years will be critical years for the adoption of agentic AI in government. use of ai agent The private sector will grow tenfold by 2027 – global 2,000 companies. IDC has Estimate The number of active, deployed AI agents worldwide will exceed 1 billion by 2029, up from 25 million in 2025. These agents are estimated to execute over 217 billion tasks per day and consume 3.7 tera tokens/call (3,700,000,000,000) per day, resulting in a global annual spend of $68 billion.
Government agencies will play a major role in how many active agents will be deployed globally over the next five years. The future of business and government is autonomous, where hybrid functions – humans and AI agents – will co-create value at the speed of need.
