Technological advancements in all fields are advancing at breakneck speed. Governments are at the forefront of this innovation as funders, test beds and philanthropists for emerging technologies. A new report from Deloitte highlights some of these technologies and the ways they are driving trends across government.
In its 14th year, the report “looks across the horizon,” considering the current market and where innovation intersects and clashes with other technologies, said Scott Buchholz, chief technology officer of Deloitte’s government and technology division. For example, technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have prompted organizations to rethink their core frameworks to ensure they can keep up.
“One of the things we find, constantly, when we look at new technologies and government, as technologies advance,” he continued, “they drive a lot of trends that we see.”
That being said, advances in local governance are sometimes hard to come by. Although it is useful, it is difficult to promote technology, because there is an assumption that everything that is implemented should work immediately. Innovation doesn’t work like that.
“When you work in an environment where failure is not allowed, experimentation is also not allowed,” Buchholz said. “That’s unfortunate, because in many cases, if the government doesn’t get more value than what we see, it can get more value than other organizations.”
Given these and other constraints in the public sector, the adoption of technological advances is often successful at the local level when the “brave individual” fights back or “when the government is open to innovation, but it is far enough within the comfort zone.”
To that end, Deloitte’s analysis outlines seven technology-related trends that are having the biggest impact on local government: Immersive online experiences for entities and employees; openness to AI and automation; Developments in multi-cloud systems; Rethinking the workforce through digitization; ban Main frame modernization; and merging the physical world with the digital.
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