Gov CIOs must meet citizens demands: Gartner

Gartner has said government chief information officers must work at finding ways to match consumer demand for contemporary services through sustainable and scalable technology.

The findings follow as Gartner released its Top Technology Trends in Government for 2024 report, which identified the top five movements and how public sector leaders can deliver improved cost-effective services.

VP Analyst at Gartner Todd Kimbriel said, “Escalating global turmoil, continual cyber threats and the adoption of AI are putting increasing pressure on governments to meet citizen demands faster and more creatively than ever before.”

“Government CIOs must find new ways to meet citizen demands for modern, accessible and resilient services, by focusing on sustainable and scalable technology,” Kimbriel said.  

The report found government CIOs should consider technology trends' influences on their organisations and use insights to improve business capabilities, achieve leadership priorities and create a more future-ready government organisation. 

“Government CIOs and leaders need to overcome any lingering resistance to the adoption of adaptive security by linking its value to broader organisational objectives, such as digital innovation and transformation, national security objectives and operational resilience,” said Kimbriel.

Gartner also believes government CIOs could build out their digital ID plans by “building on use cases and partnerships that break out of traditional sector silos to add greater value for citizens, government and businesses.”

The organisation also predicts over 70 percent of government agencies will use AI to enhance human administrative decision-making by 2026. 

It believes the likes of machine learning, analytics and generative AI will mature over the next two years and combine into a suite of tools that will support improved government service delivery.

“These tools will need to be subject to careful governance, so it’s important government CIOs drive AI adoption and governance policies throughout the organisation,” said Kimbriel. 

“They must develop a strategy that incorporates these policies with a focus on desired outcomes, then take a continuous assurance approach to ensure they are maintained after implementation.”

The trends from the report also found government organisations are increasingly adopting platform-based solutions, such as industry cloud and low-code application platforms. 

As this approach opens new opportunities, Gartner recommended government CIOs “implement a multi-cloud strategy to maximise these opportunities and mitigate the complexities of incremental modernisation across multiple systems.”

Kimbriel said, “Data remains the basis of decision-making in government, and the growing proliferation of AI re-emphasises the need for government CIOs to enhance the quality and efficiency of data at scale by improving the rules and structures that govern it.”