Gartner highlights four AI trends set to reshape government tech

Gartner has identified sovereign AI, AI agents, prompt engineering, and machine customers as the four technologies most likely to shape government AI adoption over the coming decade.

According to the 2025 Gartner Hype Cycle for Government Services, revealed by the research and advisory firm, sovereign AI and AI agents have both reached what it terms the "Peak of Inflated Expectations," signalling growing interest from governments but also the need to manage the path forward with strategic planning and investment.

Technology priorities

The Hype Cycle is Gartner's approach to tracking the maturity and adoption of technologies, particularly in terms of their relevance for solving business challenges or leveraging new opportunities. The cycle offers insight into how any given technology might evolve over time, providing public sector organisations with guidance on how best to deploy innovations in line with broader policy goals.

Dean Lacheca, Vice President Analyst at Gartner, commented on the environment driving these developments:

"Public sector leaders face mounting pressure to meet rising citizen expectations, navigate geopolitical uncertainty and do more with less resources. AI agents can address these challenges, but success will depend on bridging the gap between innovation ambitions and broader government priorities to ensure investments strengthen services, trust and resilience."

Gartner found that of the identified high-impact innovations, prompt engineering is expected to achieve mainstream adoption within the next two to five years, while machine customers - nonhuman economic actors - will become mainstream within five to ten years.

Sovereign AI

Sovereign AI describes initiatives where nation states develop and employ AI technology to serve distinct national objectives. This includes automation of government operations, modernisation of processes to support staff, and accelerated engagement with citizens.

Gartner has forecast that by 2028, 65% of governments globally will establish requirements for technological sovereignty, aiming to increase independence and shield against external regulatory influence. The intention is to balance the benefits of AI with risk reduction, particularly as governments collaborate on shared objectives.

AI agents

AI agents refer to autonomous or semi-autonomous software entities that perceive their digital or physical environment, make decisions, take actions, and pursue specific goals. These can assist government agencies in a range of service delivery tasks such as policy assessment, legal interpretation, and routine process automation.

Gartner projects that by 2029, 60% of government agencies worldwide will use AI agents to automate over half of their citizen-facing transactional interactions, up from less than 10% in 2025.

Dean Lacheca offers further advice for government organisations evaluating the use of AI agents:

"Government leaders must incorporate AI agents into strategic planning by first identifying where they can deliver the most value. Then run targeted pilots to manage expectations and address concerns from within the organisation and from citizens. This should be followed by a clear roadmap to ensure initiatives progress beyond the pilot phase."

Prompt engineering

Prompt engineering involves crafting text or image inputs for generative AI (GenAI) models to elicit relevant and reliable results. Well-developed prompts are key to achieving higher quality and more consistent outputs from these systems. Gartner suggests that public sector organisations can increase returns on AI adoption by focusing on AI literacy, such as training staff in prompt engineering and establishing reusable libraries of effective prompts.

Dean Lacheca emphasised the necessity of investment in this area:

"Governments are investing in AI solutions that work best when users create clear context-specific prompts. They shouldn't invest in AI solutions if they're not willing to invest in the development of strong prompt engineering capabilities within their organisations."

Machine customers

Machine customers are described as autonomous devices or programs capable of purchasing goods or services on behalf of humans or organisations. Gartner estimates that there are currently three billion B2B internet-connected machines acting as customers, with the number expected to reach eight billion by 2030.

This adoption may require governments to develop authentication mechanisms, adapt service provision, and revise regulation frameworks. Gartner suggests, for example, that vehicle reporting operations might allow for the direct administration of road use taxes through machine-to-government communications.

Dean Lacheca noted the potential regulatory changes ahead:

"Government leaders need to identify where adoption of machine customers by citizens and industries will require the reimagination of regulatory enforcement and service delivery. Existing government service delivery models will be disrupted, creating ethical, legal and accountability challenges. Governments can't afford to be caught unprepared for the rise of machine customers."

The findings draw from Gartner's recent Hype Cycle report, designed to assist government and public sector organisations as they evaluate and prioritise their adoption of AI and related technologies.