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ZDNET's key takeaways

• 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

According to IDC research focused on public-sector readiness, agentic AI is no longer in the experimental phase for government; it is a leadership mandate.

IDC finds that while many government agencies are implementing agent-driven workflows, few have moved beyond pilots. The rate of agentic AI adoption in government is due to several factors:

• Budgetary pressures
• Sovereignty and compliance, including requirements for data resistance, algorithmic transparency, and accountability
• Workforce disruption, which points to skill gaps in cybersecurity and machine learning operations
• Citizen expectations for faster, more personalized, and equitable services

Also: The rise and risks of agent management platforms

Becoming an agentic government - a leadership mandate

IDC research shows that the transformation of agentic AI -- autonomous digital workers that can reason and take action -- in government includes 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 service delivery speed and scale. Citizen service delivery is enhanced with agents that can deliver proactive, context-aware, and personalized interactions. Agentic AI can also use synthetic data and model scenarios to enhance the planning and delivery of new services by providing more contextual intelligence around stakeholder needs. 

Also: 77% of IT managers say their AI agents are out of control - 5 ways to rein in yours

Recent research shows that agentic AI scaling is predicated on a strong data foundation, including government agencies' ability to identify high-impact workflows to agentify and the implementation of a data architecture for AI agents. In addition, government agencies must ensure that data quality and accessibility are in place. Lastly, government agencies must build an operation and governance model for agentic AI -- this is about rethinking how work gets done. 

IDC estimates that by 2026, 70% of the Global 2000 company CEOs will focus AI ROI on growth, driving C-suite efforts to boost revenue and reinvent business models without growing headcount. The financial pressure and momentum for faster adoption of agentic AI in the private sector also exist in the public sector.  

The accelerated adoption of AI agents 

More than 8 out of 10 (82%) of government organizations have already adopted AI agents, according to a new IDC study based on a survey of 118 leaders and decision makers in the US across federal, state, and local governments. The study found that 60% of government leaders believe their adoption of AI agents is outpacing the private sector.

Also: How to build better AI agents for your business - without creating trust issues

Government leaders view the biggest benefit of adopting digital labor as improved responsiveness to citizen demand for faster, smarter, and more personalized services. The vast majority of government leaders (83%) see AI agents as key to transforming government agency structures. Here are the key takeaways of the IDC study focused on AI agent adoption in government: 

1. Adoption trajectory for AI agents: 71% of government agencies plan to increase use of agentic AI in 2026-2027

2. Transforming how work is done: 94% of government leaders believe AI agents will fundamentally transform the nature of work. It is likely that the operational responsibilities of managing agencies will increasingly be handled by AI agents. 

3. AI's impact on society: 56% of government leaders believe 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.

4. Significant productivity gains with AI agents: 85% of leaders estimate that AI agents save their workforce up to 45% of their time per week. 

5. 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%). 

The agentic government of 2030

Nearly 9 out of 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 manages subordinates now will also manage AI agents by 2030. Entirely new teams and departments will be created that include AI agents. 

What is the impact on human labor with the greater adoption of AI agents in government? The good news is that 59% of government leaders expect to see an increase in the size of certain teams and departments, including a greater need for leadership opportunities. In fact, 77% see AI agents empowering more human employees to work on high-value and more satisfying missions. Government leaders see agentic AI adoption not just as a technology transformation but also as a relational transformation, with an emphasis on human-centric soft skills. 

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What types of roles are likely to be a recruitment focus for government agencies? In 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 specialists. Government leaders see the most disruptive impact of AI agents in IT, administrative and clerical, and management and leadership roles. The key to success will be AI and data literacy, operational integration with AI, and responsible and ethical use of AI.

The IDC study reveals that the next two years will be pivotal years for agentic AI adoption in government. AI agent usage will surge tenfold by 2027 in the private sector -- the global 2,000 companies. IDC has projected that the number of active, deployed AI agents worldwide will exceed 1 billion by 2029, up from 25 million in 2025. These agents are forecast to execute over 217 billion actions per day and consume 3.7 Tera Tokens/Calls (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 are deployed globally over the next five years. The future of business and government is autonomous, where hybrid work -- humans and AI agents -- will co-create value at the speed of need.