The GovTech 4 Impact (G4I) World Congress 2025 in Madrid was where global leaders, from city mayors to national ministers, gathered to share not just their successes, but their hard-won wisdom on how to actually deliver a “reimagined government.” 

The following seven quotes capture the essence of the current state of the govtech world and the issues we are tackling during the congress – emphasizing that while technology is the tool, the human element remains the most critical factor in public sector transformation.

1. “Our first duty is to solve the common problems of ordinary people as we are.”

-Fernando de Pablo, Digital Office Director, City of Madrid 

Fernando de Pablo illustrated the entire three-day event in a simple, human truth. He noted that while writing an ambitious digital strategy is easy, advancing it in a way that impacts the real lives of millions is difficult. He points out that technology must not be an end, but a means to solve the concrete, everyday frustrations of the citizens whom the state is sworn to serve. This quote re-centers GovTech on human problems, language and priorities, and reminds us that digital transformation isn’t about AI, apps or dashboards. 

Digital transformation is about trust, dignity, convenience, and fairness for real people. 

2. “If you automate mess, you will get even more mess.”

– Jeyhun Salmanov, Deputy Chairman at the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan 

This is one of the most universal truths of digital transformation. The quote from Jeyhun Salmanov serves as a fundamental warning for any government rushing toward digitization. Salmanov highlighted that technology cannot fix broken bureaucratic logic. His experience in Azerbaijan showed that the prerequisite for digital government is a “laboratory” phase where services are simplified and optimized first. Digitizing an inefficient process merely accelerates the chaos for the citizen. Before digitizing, governments must: 

• Simplify rules and workflows 

• Remove unnecessary approvals 

• Rethink old legislation 

• Eliminate pointless documentation 

This is the “pre-digitization redesign phase” that many countries skip because it is: 

• Politically painful 

• Bureaucratically disruptive 

• Time-consuming 

But skipping it creates the digital equivalent of a traffic jam: faster, but more chaotic. 

3. “Everything fails all the time… the resilience will have to come from you.”

– Mikey Dickerson, Crisis Reengineer, Partner/Principal, Layer Aleph LLC 

Coming from a background of fixing massive IT failures, Mikey Dickerson provided a sobering reality check. He argued that while computers are excellent at repetition, they are incapable of adapting to unprecedented crises. In his view, governments must stop pretending that technology is infallible and instead focus on training human leaders who can provide the necessary supply of adaptability and resilience when systems inevitably collapse. Thus, resilience is not only a “tech question” but a leadership discipline: 

• Training humans to intervene 

• Designing manual fallback procedures 

• Creating crisis communication channels 

• Practicing failure as a normal operating condition 

He reframes resilience as a human competency, not a tech feature. 

4. “The one innovation that saved the most lives in the world is the standard, and it’s washing your hands.”

-Mara Balestrini, Strategic Advisor at LACNet 

Mara Balestrini used this graphic analogy to explain the often-abstract concept of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Just as the standard of hand-washing scaled globally because it was useful and open for everyone to adopt without copyright barriers, digital building blocks like identity and payment systems must be based on open standards. Her point was clear: for a digital state to scale, it must move away from proprietary “black boxes” and embrace interoperability. She’s essentially advocating for global public goods in digital form. 

5. “If we don’t get ethics right in the procurement process, then the AI principles and oversight boards don’t necessarily matter.”

– Zara Quadir, Associate on the Transformation team at PUBLIC 

Zara Quadir emphasized that for many governments, procurement is where policy becomes very real. She argued that the ethical stakes of digital transformation are won or lost in how technology is bought. If a government contracts a “black box” system without transparency or accountability, no amount of high-level ethical frameworks can retroactively fix the lack of public trust or institutional control 

6. “It would be irresponsible if we did not invest in artificial intelligence in publicadministrations.”

-Javier Fernández, Director General of Digital Strategy and Artificial Intelligence, Government of the Principality of Asturias 

While much of the congress focused on the risks of AI, Javier Fernández emphasized the “irresponsibility” of passivity. He argued that the potential for AI to improve citizen services is too vast to ignore. However, he balanced this by insisting on “responsibility by design”—ensuring that while governments aggressively adopt these tools, they maintain a strict governance framework that prevents the loss of specialized public knowledge to external “black box” providers. 

His point: AI is not a luxury. It’s a responsibility. But responsible AI requires internal capacity, not just procurement. 

7. “GovTech is an amazing opportunity to also have businesses within countries thrive and grow… contributing to an overall innovation ecosystem.” 

–Ibrahim Koeran, Head of GovTech at Heliad AG 

Ibrahim Koeran highlighted the dual-purpose nature of GovTech as both a public service improver and an economic engine. By diversifying the vendor base and moving away from a few massive “primes,” governments can give themselves the freedom of choice while simultaneously nurturing a vital ecosystem of local startups and SMEs. This approach ensures that digital sovereignty is not just about control, but about building a prosperous, competitive national innovation system. 

These seven insights illuminate a future where governments must balance speed with durability, innovation with responsibility, and technology with humanity. If these themes resonate with you, whether you work in public service, the private sector, academia, or civic tech, the journey continues. 

You are invited to be part of the next chapter at the GovTech 4 Impact World Congress 2026, taking place from 5–7 May 2026.