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Emerging technologies will attract a new generation of technologists into local government

Imagine you are a technologist working in local government ten years from now. Within the traditional local government system and City Hall, how will digital services be delivered?

Now imagine you are a citizen wishing to interact with your local government, also ten years from now. Instead of having to go in-person to a government building, call during limited office hours, or search for information on a departmental website, how might you want to avail of government services?

Understanding what technologies are likely emerge and become more mainstream during that timeframe will help with developing answers to these questions, and can help inspire a new generation of technologists to serve in state and local government.

Emerging Technologies

In his book “The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society”, Azeem Azhar writes about the development of “an ‘exponential gap’ — between the power of new technology and humans’ ability to keep up”. Rather than live in fear of such a gap expanding, the author outlines new ways for humans to “harness the power of tech to serve our real needs”. The exponential growth in the power of emerging technologies, and the opportunities and challenges they will present, are likely to begin impacting how local governments deliver digital services sooner than we might anticipate. Here are the emerging technologies that I predict will impact our state and local government ecosystems over the next decade and longer, along with some suggested reading on each technology.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

While one can argue that AI has already ‘emerged’ and is embedded into some local government tools and processes, it is still in the early stages of its public sector implementation process. Much debate in recent times has focused on the controversial usage of algorithms in some decision-making processes. New and more powerful AI capabilities emerge all the time, especially in the private sector, and many of those will eventually diffuse into the local government ecosystem. A great overview of current and future issues and opportunities re: AI can be found in this book: “Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence” by Darrell M. West and John R. Allen.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a foundational technology that helps power many new innovations currently making the news, including cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Much of the recent focus has centered on the volatility surrounding these new innovations and their impact on financial systems, payment systems, stocks, calls for the decentralization of the internet (usually referred to as “Web3”), and so on. A good question to ask is “Should local government care?”. I believe the answer is Yes, and that state and local government will need to create new policies and processes to implement blockchains at scale, allow new forms of payments for services and utilities, and think through what digital services innovation could be unleashed as a result. There is a real shift happening, even if we don’t yet fully understand its implications yet. A useful foundational learning resource on these topics can be found here.

Metaverse

Another major technological shift that has made it into the mainstream consciousness of late is the metaverse, a term which describes a fully realized digital world that exists beyond the one in which we live, and which will be experienced through virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) technologies. Rather than speculate about what the metaverse may ultimately become, I think it is more useful to pose some questions: if it were possible to create a complete virtual representation of your local government that people (via their avatars) could engage with at any time and from any place, what kind of services could you provide that simply aren’t possible today? Thinking about the emergence of new financial technologies being built on top of Blockchains, how might those be integrated into your local government in these virtual environments? What accessibility improvements and opportunities might these experiences offer? What equity concerns might arise re: access to services being provided in the metaverse? In the metaverse, what will “local government” actually mean?

If you think those kinds of considerations are many years away, there are examples of experimentation already happening in some governments. Recently the metropolitan government of the South Korean city of Seoul announced that it is the first city to “enter the metaverse”. Additionally, the South Korean government recently announced it is investing $187M in developing a national metaverse platform.

To learn more about the metaverse and what this emerging set of foundational technologies and an embodied online experience might look like, here is a great overview (note: the same author will publish a book about the metaverse in July 2022).

Quantum

While the idea of quantum information and quantum computing first emerged forty years ago, it is perhaps within the last five years or so that it has really come into the mainstream consciousness as an emerging technology that could result in a truly exponential growth in computing power. While much of the focus has been on concerns about encryption and other national security concerns, there are several key areas where state and local government could potentially avail of these amazing advances once the technology has matured (which is still some considerable time away due to the fiendishly difficult quantum physics problems that need to be overcome, probably the longest tail of all the emerging technologies). In 2018 I wrote about quantum information could help government solve large optimization problems, such as the “quantum inspired optimization solutions” for traffic management currently being studied in a partnership between Ford and Microsoft. At the state government level, the development of a completely secure quantum internet and other quantum networks for sharing quantum information could result in new capabilities to help secure elections, identity management, and other public services that require a high degree of trust to be established with the public. I highly recommend the recently published book “Law and Policy for the Quantum Age” by Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L. Garfinkel as an accessible overview for the lay person of these complex technologies and their potential future impact.

Preparation

So how can local governments prepare for a future that will include emerging technologies such as those outlined in this essay? One suggestion is to include emerging technology considerations into regional and city comprehensive plans, especially those plans with long time horizons (e.g. 2030 or 2035). Many such comprehensive plans at the local government level refer only to their built environments, even though all the emerging technologies referenced above will likely be mainstream in the next ten to fifteen years. Local government CIOs/CTOs do publish strategic technology plans, however elevating these strategies and plans into the topline planning mechanisms will help government leaders reassess the mission critical role that technology plays in the delivery of public services. In addition, it will be important for state and local government to create the ability to build expertise in emerging technologies through experimentation and pilot programs in conjunction with universities and tech companies. These efforts will help create the proofs of concept that will help the rest of the organization to see the potential value of these new technologies, as well as generating new ideas and excitement. An added benefit of this approach is that it will attract the very people who will be needed in the future to implement and scale these technologies within the state and local government ecosystem.

Attracting a New Generation of Technologists into Local Government

Two years ago, I launched my book as a guide for other technologists who may also wish to serve in local government. During those two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a technological accelerant, unleashing innovation and the establishment of new norms within local government that I personally didn’t think I’d ever see, based on my own experiences from my government service. A common refrain has been that ten years of innovation has squeezed into those two years, a sentiment I tend to agree with. Like in many sectors of our economy, working from home became the default in local government, and remote work policies that were previously taboo were suddenly implemented as the new normal. A wave of innovation was unleashed, aided by wonderful organizations such as US Digital Response where I’m proud to be a volunteer. Even during a tumultuous period of suffering and massive upheaval, the critical role that technology and data played in helping governments at all levels manage the pandemic was crystal clear. In my view, Covid finally resolved the debate over whether governments at all levels need to be fully in the cloud. The only real question now is how fast this transition can be completed, as accelerated cloud deployments coupled with the new norms established during the pandemic will help government prepare for what’s next.

These emerging technologies will also provide local governments with new opportunities to attract and retain great technical talent, especially from the Gen Z and later generations. Gen Z, as “digital natives”, are extremely comfortable with new and rapidly evolving technologies and default to thinking “digital first” when it comes to engaging with products and services. They will be at the forefront of embracing these new technologies in the coming years, and therefore can help local government shape their digital services experiences using these new technologies. Not only that, as citizens they will also demand that public services be available digitally and with the same great user experiences that they are used to in other areas of their lives.

While I’ve referred to these technologies as “emerging”, I believe the time to start engaging with the foundational technologies as they’re being developed begins now. Because of the proximity of local governments to the people they serve, there is huge scope for rapid experimentation with associated feedback loops that can drive technology policy innovation at the state and local government level. As we emerge from the pandemic and building on the old adage of “never let a crisis go to waste”, state and local governments can extend the opportunities to push the envelope on technology by experimenting with these incredibly exciting emerging technologies.

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