Tech Trends 2021: A government perspective

Key technology trends for 2021

Below we provide a government-specific take on Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2021 report, spotlighting the accelerating technology trends most likely to cause disruption over the next 18 to 24 months. We explore which trends may be most relevant for governments and how ready governments are to take advantage of them.

From the rise of strategy and technology becoming inseparable, to the rapidly disappearing boundary between the physical and virtual worlds, the trends we explore could have profound implications for business, government, and society in the months and years ahead.

As organisational and technology strategies become more inseparable, technology choices bear a greater role in enabling—or potentially constraining—organisational strategy. Strategy development is being transformed from a slow infrequent process to one that’s continuous and dynamic, helping strategists think more expansively and creatively about the wide range of future possibilities.

Trends in action

As government agencies plan how to meet their missions, they should investigate technologies that can monitor adherence to strategy, scan for pre-determined disruptions, and generate additional strategic ideas. Moreover, leaders should work to better align technology implementation choices to mission strategies.

Readiness: 2

Relevance: 4

Pioneering IT leaders are embracing new approaches, technologies, and business cases to revitalise core assets as organisations increasingly view technology modernisation as an imperative to enable strategic change. In a climate defined by historic uncertainty, innovative approaches for extracting more value from core assets could soon become standard components of every digital transformation.

Trends in action

From operate-to-transform arrangements to creative financing options, governments should consider ways of utilizing commercial leading practices for legacy modernisation. Moreover, there are new tools, technologies, and techniques that can accelerate the journey to a modern core.

Readiness: 3

Relevance: 5

Organisations are increasingly optimising their supply chain systems and processes to make them more flexible, durable, and responsive, using advanced digital technologies, virtualised data, and physical technologies to transform supply chain cost centers into customer-focused, value-driving networks. For most, it will be an ongoing journey—one of critical importance.

Trends in action

Governments should explore technologies that provide visibility into the supply networks that support their missions. Moreover, government should encourage policies that make it easier for supply chain networks—across industry and government—to share data more readily and achieve greater transparency.

Readiness: 2

Relevance: 3

With machine learning (ML) and AI becoming increasingly key to organisational performance, organisations are realising the need to move from personal heroics to engineered performance. The era of artisanal AI must give way to MLOps—the application of engineering discipline to automate ML model development, maintenance, and delivery—to shorten development life cycles and industrialise AI.

Trends in action

As both users and regulators of the use of AI, governments have an important role in its ongoing evolution. As users, governments can benefit from using AI to augment workforce decisions and productivity. As regulators, governments can clarify policies around topics such as privacy rights and model bias.

Readiness: 2

Relevance: 5

To achieve the benefits and scale of AI and MLOps, data must be tuned for native machine consumption, not humans, causing organisations to rethink data management, capture, and organisation. This can help organisations turn data into a foundation for machines to not only augment human decision-making but also make real-time, at-scale decisions that humans cannot.

Trends in action

To take advantage of the gold mines of data trapped in legacy and core systems and to fully utilise AI capabilities, governments will need to explore new ways of making data more available and usable. Through data meshes or other techniques, reconsidering data collection and availability is critical.

Readiness: 1

Relevance: 4

A zero trust cybersecurity posture provides the opportunity to create more robust and resilient security, simplify security management, improve end-user experience, and enable modern IT practices. This shift may require significant effort, including addressing foundational cybersecurity issues, automating manual processes, and planning for transformational changes.

Trends in action

Zero trust approaches hold the promise of improving cybersecurity across every organisation. By starting with a default policy of denial instead of trust, systems can be made far more secure. The transition also provides the opportunity to better utilise automation and resources.

Readiness: 3

Relevance: 5

The digital workplace represents a fundamental shift in the way work gets done. Organisations are embracing technology to optimise individual and team productivity, collaboration, and the employee experience at large. As onsite workspaces and headquarters evolve, organisations can use data to create thriving, productive, and cost-effective offices that are interwoven with the remote experience.

Trends in action

Adopting leading practices in managing team interactions and the role of the office promises productivity improvements for government organisations. Leveraging modern collaboration technology also promises better access to talent from across the locality, state, or country.

Readiness: 3

Relevance: 5

Forced to embrace digital faster than ever, organisations are recognising that the desired human experience strikes a balance between making traditional physical human experiences more digital and digital experiences more physical. In the near term, online and offline interactions will become more fully integrated experiences, benefiting from the best capabilities of each.

Trends in action

By combining leading practices from the virtual and in-person worlds, governments can provide constituents with the positive experiences they have come to expect from the private sector. Every public interaction should be reviewed.

Readiness: 1

Relevance: 4

Organisations have access to increasingly sophisticated tools to support their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the talent life cycle. The tools seek to make DEI decision-making and processes more data-driven, but leaders must still carefully consider potential unintended consequences and carefully manage implementations to achieve their goals.

Trends in action

Government has long been a leader in DEI. Increasingly, technologies are improving the ability to identify, recruit, and manage a diverse workforce. Bringing the right data to newer technology can help governments continue to lead the way in DEI.

Readiness: 3

Relevance: 4

Client spotlight: Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Organisations like the IRS are rethinking cultural norms, organisational structures, and governance mechanisms to leverage AI resources more efficiently. Scaling AI across the agency means taking a different approach to creating and managing machine learning models, getting needed skills and talent, and establishing accountability.

Client spotlight: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

To improve the efficiency and coordination of AI development and use across the agency, NOAA developed a bold strategy focused on consolidating AI and machine learning activity within a single virtual AI center. This allows researchers in line offices to share best practices and helps eliminate redundant development efforts.

Discover more about the report on Deloitte Insights

As with each edition of our annual Tech Trends report, this is part of an ongoing discussion in an ever-evolving field. Our goal is to provide you with pointers to better engage with constituents, make informed decisions, and do more with less. We hope these ideas will help inform and guide your thinking as you explore opportunities to innovate and improve.