Government technology leaders face a growing challenge. Emerging technologies are advancing quickly, but deciding what to do about them is becoming harder. It’s about more than just deciding on the technologies that governments should invest in now. Which could improve services, increase productivity, strengthen mission outcomes, or accelerate modernization? And which require government to look beyond its own technology environment and consider broader implications for the economy, workforce, security, resilience, and society? Government needs to consider all of these aspects.

Government Is Both An Adopter And A Shaper Of Technology

Government adopts emerging technology to improve public and mission outcomes. But it also shapes how businesses, communities, and citizens use and experience that technology. That distinction matters. Not every emerging technology calls for the same response, and being innovative does not mean adopting everything. The challenge is knowing where to experiment and scale, where to prepare and govern, and where government must do both.

Our new report, The Top Emerging Technologies For Public Sector And Government, 2026, separates these roles and their implications. Some technologies demand that government make an adoption decision, others demand a governance response, and a few demand both.

Match The Government Response To The Technology

Take agentic software development. Aging systems, technical debt, and limited delivery capacity still constrain many public-sector organizations. Agentic software development gives technology teams a practical near-term opportunity to accelerate software delivery, modernize legacy environments, and improve digital services, making it a near-term adoption priority. In light of this, technology leaders in government should test where it can produce measurable mission value now.

AI supercomputing presents a different question. Few agencies will operate sovereign-scale AI compute environments themselves, yet governments cannot ignore who controls the infrastructure powering increasingly advanced AI. The leadership questions extend beyond adoption to sovereignty, infrastructure policy, economic competitiveness, security, and national resilience. Each of these technologies requires different responses, but they both belong on the government technology agenda.

Build An Emerging Technology Agenda Around Outcomes

Recent research on emerging technology adoption in the US Department of the Navy reinforces an important lesson: Successful adoption is not about chasing new technology. It requires connecting technology to mission outcomes, testing it deliberately, scaling what proves valuable, and stopping what doesn’t. That same discipline should shape the broader emerging technology agenda.

So don’t just ask, “Should we adopt it?” Ask: What outcome could it improve? What will it take to turn that potential into value? What wider impact could it create? And what role should government play?

Want to learn more? Read The Top Emerging Technologies For Public Sector And Government, 2026 to identify the technologies that governments should prioritize for adoption, the technologies that they should prepare to govern, and where technology leaders need to lead in both of these conversations. Then, reach out and connect with us to dig deeper into the implications by scheduling time for an inquiry or guidance session.

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