Now is the time for the GovTech movement to establish a unifying global vision and strategy, and to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and the scale of successful use cases, enabling more governments to enhance further the delivery of services to citizens, residents, and communities.

Opportunity Amid Crises

In recent years, there’s been an influx of government leaders, startups, social impact organizations, and funding sources into the global GovTech market. Some parties are interested in supporting how government services are delivered, some are launching businesses and startups to support identified civic needs, some want to make money given the $9.8B opportunity highlighted by the World Economic Forum, and some are in the midst of creating coalitions and responding to the increasing volume of global crises impacting countries, states, and cities.

The current environment in which we’re working is marked by numerous crises, including wars and defense investments, the dismantling of public health institutions, leadership changes that are creating new global alliances, and drastic changes in funding sources that support the delivery of vital government services.

This moment presents an opportunity for the GovTech ecosystem to play a more strategic role in responding to the needs of citizens, residents, and communities. GovTech can also facilitate and create more pathways for future progress by influencing policy, procurement, hiring practices, and other systemic pillars of government operations.

In the early 2000s, public health crises, economic instability, and other global issues prompted governments to form partnerships across various sectors and industries, creating a more strategic approach to addressing these societal issues. While working across many African countries, the environment demanded a more creative approach to addressing healthcare and civic priorities, given the constrained resources. Similar to today, it was essential to be innovative and build upon proven examples with a diverse group of partners. There was an ingenuity and creativity that enabled us to develop and test innovative approaches, ultimately creating better outcomes for people and their communities.

A significant opportunity for GovTech in the foreseeable future will be to coalesce around a common strategy and set of priorities, creating a more unified foundation that all geographies and layers of government can be part of, benefit from, and thrive amid tremendous change.

Less Pilots and More Scale

The global GovTech movement is also at a significant inflection point. For years, there has been a focus on proving value through pilots, accelerator programs, and testing what could work. We can confidently pivot and shift the priority to building future internal capacity across government. This

includes emphasizing what employees and teams want, need, and use to make their work more productive, allowing them to better focus on the lives of those they serve. Let’s scale solutions that already work well, rather than repeatedly creating pilot solutions and minimal viable products, as this will enhance the impact needed in our current environment.

From my experience, there are abundant and proven examples within government agencies and departments, as well as among teams and individuals, who have redesigned and created solutions. Many of these solutions are open source, making them available to all levels of government worldwide. The examples range from city-level Innovation Offices and statewide Chief Data Officer teams to cybersecurity teams and Chief Information and Technology Officers driving technology strategy across government. In addition, and sometimes more importantly, there are individuals and teams within agencies and departments who have invested in enterprise and program-specific solutions that can deliver greater benefits with reduced costs.

The ability to pivot from pilots to scale presents a tremendous opportunity for impact with the right teams, the right level of experience, and the right unifying strategy.

Experience Mixed with Ingenuity

GovTech can also facilitate bringing together leaders who have demonstrated GovTech success over decades, and pair them with legislative leadership, policy experts, and those who currently deliver government services to residents and citizens. Elevating the voices of those doing the work is paramount, and complementing those leaders and teams with those who have practical experience is an ideal partnership.

Given the volume of successful use cases, we can allocate less time to evaluating new projects and more time to prioritizing how to scale the benefits across borders, as well as build capacity within government to lead the change. We need leaders who can systematically build capacity and mobilize teams, rather than focusing solely on elevating one-off project success over two-month sprints.

A government’s business and program needs are the priority. The days are over when technology solutions drive what is needed. The vast majority of AI pilots have failed or are not suitable to scale across government programs. Solutions created by vendors and startups should better align with the government’s priorities to deliver services. Innovation can also take on a different meaning – when it’s grounded in practical use and integrating solutions or services sustainably, it can create a conducive environment for GovTech work.

What Makes a Conducive GovTech Environment?

During the G4I Congress in May 2025, I had the pleasure of facilitating a discussion on “Bridging GovTech Innovation across Europe and the United States.” We enjoyed highlighting the practical and tactical ways to influence procurement, service delivery, the citizen + resident experience, culture change, and how various geographies can better collaborate to support GovTech priorities globally.

As we envision a GovTech future, one of the questions I think is essential to support future progress is – what makes a government environment conducive to GovTech, startups, and building a more innovative culture?

Here are some points that make an environment conducive to GovTech work:

• Strategy Paired with Action: Vision and strategy are necessary. Leaders who emphasize their strategy and then swiftly mobilize to take action are ideal. We want to engage more leaders who can create a vision and know how to quickly pivot to delivering against it with diverse partners and startups.
• Focus on Practical Needs: There’s an emphasis on practical and tactical examples and successes that build confidence across government, reduce resistance, create stronger GovTech coalitions, and demonstrate the possibilities of this collective work.
• Address Systemic Issues: A track record of advancing and prioritizing investments at the state, local, district, and provincial levels of government that can directly influence national priorities and systemic changes, particularly in areas as fundamental as procurement reform.
• Start with Yes: Find the business and technology leaders who want to get to yes. There will inevitably be challenges, small failures, and ongoing resistance. The ideal environment and teams are those willing to navigate these choppy waters with a strategic view of what success looks like on the other side of resistance and challenges.
• Instill an Innovation Culture: There’s a commitment to foster an internal environment and culture within government that embraces GovTech initiatives. There is an innovation function or office, and leadership emphasizes challenging the status quo of service delivery. The messaging underscores the needs of residents and citizens and is directly connected to prioritized action.

When we prioritize the needs of citizens, residents, customers, and those accessing government services in our decisions, the potential impact of GovTech is unprecedented. Across GovTech, I’m confident that we can:

• Establish a shared vision and emphasize strategic priorities that respond to our current crises and address systemic barriers to change.
• Facilitate partnerships between startups and social impact organizations that are unified in their focus and address government needs.
• Disassemble the invisible barriers or borders to a more global GovTech vision, while protecting the decades of work that have gotten this movement to where it is today.

Looking forward to keeping the conversations active amid the changes around us and going deeper at G4I 2026 in Madrid for a third year, building more capacity for how we respond to this moment and our collective future.