Long viewed as digital laggards, government agencies are emerging as pioneers of the agentic era. A new IDC study of U.S. federal, state, and local government leaders and decision makers reveals that 82% of government organizations surveyed have already adopted AI agents, and leaders anticipate a fundamental transformation — driven by AI — in how the public sector operates.

Agencies are moving to leverage agentic AI — autonomous digital workers that can reason and take action — to drive productivity and efficiency at scale, and 60% of government leaders believe they are significantly or somewhat ahead of the private sector in agentic AI adoption. These leaders see AI agents as a catalyst for a more responsive, mission-driven government; furthermore, 83% of those surveyed say AI agents are the key to transforming their organizational structure.

“Government leaders no longer see AI as a back-office experiment. They see it as a critical pillar of national competitiveness and service delivery. In today’s landscape, integrating agentic AI is now mission critical.” – Paul Tatum, EVP, Public Sector Solutions, Salesforce

The Agentic Era Will be More Transformational than the Internet

Government leaders see this shift as a generational milestone. A majority (56%) of those surveyed believe agentic AI will have a more profound impact on government than the rise of the internet:

• 56% say AI will have a greater impact than the internet and cloud computing; 51% say it will have a greater impact than the PC; and 46% say it will be more transformative than the smartphone.
• 71% of organizations plan to increase their use of agentic AI in the next year alone.
• 94% believe AI agents will fundamentally transform the nature of work.

The move toward agentic AI isn’t just about efficiency — it’s about delivering mission-critical outcomes and maintaining a national advantage. For government leaders, it is a strategic imperative: 83% believe agentic AI will transform service delivery and operating models, and almost as many (80%) believe agentic AI will be critical to competing in the current geopolitical environment. 

• 85% of leaders estimate AI already saves them up to 45% their time in a typical workweek, signaling massive efficiency gains for government work.
• 63% of leaders believe agentic AI will have a greater impact on government than generative AI alone, signaling the value of systems that can execute complex tasks autonomously.
• Leaders expect AI agents to drive the biggest impact in high-stakes mission areas, including social benefits management (24%), public safety (22%), and defense-specific applications (22%) like predictive intelligence and command systems.
• Fraud, waste, and abuse detection (44%), followed by cybersecurity threat management (36%), was identified as the top mission-specific use case for AI agents.

Agentic AI is also expected to fundamentally reshape the daily responsiveness and effectiveness of government agencies. When asked to choose where AI agents will have the biggest impact, leaders reported the following areas: 

• 42% of leaders reported that AI agents will drive increased workforce productivity.
• 41% believe agentic AI will make the government more proactive and responsive to citizen needs.
• 31% see agentic AI as the key to faster program and service innovation.
• 30% reported agentic AI will improve decision-making. 
• 28% believe AI agents will enable them to reduce the cost to serve.

The Government Workforce of 2030 

Government leaders and decision makers widely view AI as a catalyst for a total organizational and workforce overhaul: 

• 89% agree that the future of the public sector involves humans working side-by-side with AI agents. In fact, 74% expect most human employees to have an AI agent reporting to them within the next five years. 
• 83% stated agentic AI will transform their organizational structure, and 74% believe it will spur the creation of entirely new teams and departments.
• 59% reported that agentic AI will actually increase the size of certain teams and departments, and 57% believe AI will increase the need for people in leadership positions.
• 77% agreed that AI agents will empower them to move employees into more relevant and satisfying roles, which 80% stated would enhance the workforce’s human-centric soft skills. 

Illustrating the scale of this workforce transformation, an overwhelming 91% of leaders reported that the vast majority of their workforce (up to 74%) will step into brand-new roles, while 92% expect a similar portion of existing jobs to be fundamentally transformed. 

• In the next five years, agencies expect to hire the most for AI management and strategy (29%), IT and technical support (22%), and AI governance and ethics (17%).
• The current roles expected to see the most substantial change include IT (29%), administration and clerical (22%), and management and leadership (19%).
• To thrive, leaders say the workforce must prioritize AI literacy, operational integration of AI, responsible and ethical AI use, and skills that support agency innovation and culture. 

“We are past the point of experimentation; the agentic era has arrived. For government leaders to truly deliver, they must prioritize the human and strategic elements — bringing their workforce along and selecting the right foundation. Since nearly 40% of leaders identify trusted partners as their most critical success factor, the focus must be on vendors with a proven track record and the unified platform and ecosystem that can bridge the gap between AI’s potential and the government’s mission.” – Paul Tatum, EVP, Public Sector Solutions, Salesforce

Methodology

IDC surveyed 118 leaders and decision makers in the U.S. across federal, state, and local governments. Of those surveyed 97.5% of those surveyed are a key decision maker or part of the team that leads AI adoption and investment within their agencies.

IDC Resource Map Document, The Impact of Agentic AI/Digital Labor in Government Agencies Survey, #US54433326_RMD, March 2026