Emerging Technologies

How to ‘rewire’ governments to use AI in the Intelligent Age

When governments undergo digital transformations, they often face challenges from bureaucracy, legacy systems and fear of new technology, as well as safety and security issues.

When governments undergo digital transformations, they often face challenges from bureaucracy, legacy systems and fear of new technology, as well as safety and security issues. Image: World Economic Forum/Gabriel Lado

Pauline McCallion
Writer, Forum Stories
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • Governments are exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can help them to deliver seamless services for citizens in areas including health, education and benefits.
  • When governments undergo digital transformations, they often face challenges from bureaucracy, legacy systems and fear of new technology, as well as safety and security issues.
  • Experts at two panels held during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 discussed the need for greater collaboration and strong governance to help governments digitally transform using tools like AI.

In an increasingly digital world, governments must keep up with the latest tech innovations, as well as growing demand from citizens’ for faster, more efficient and intuitive government services.

But the public sector has traditionally lagged private sector-development and implementation of technology like artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the World Economic Forum’s GovTech (government technology) Network has identified a $10 trillion opportunity as governments come under increasing pressure to modernize their systems and meet the needs of an increasingly digital world.

Experts at two panels at this week's World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 explored the main trends that will be driving change for this critical technology.

Governments around the world are now embarking on digital transformation journeys so they can provide seamless services for citizens, while also keeping people – and their data – safe and secure. “How to understand, master and harness technology is the single biggest thing for government to get its head around today,” said Tony Blair, former UK prime minister, now executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, during his opening address for the Governments, Rewired panel at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos on 23 January.

While many governments haven’t fully internalised the fundamental nature of the change new technology like AI is bringing about, Blair said that finding a way to properly harness AI will “transform everything”.

The challenges of AI for governments

Governments around the world are now embarking on digital transformation journeys so they can provide seamless services for citizens, while also keeping people – and their data – safe and secure. “How to understand, master and harness technology is the single biggest thing for government to get its head around today,” said Tony Blair, former UK prime minister, now executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, during his opening address for the Governments, Rewired panel at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos on 23 January.

While many governments haven’t fully internalised the fundamental nature of the change new technology like AI is bringing about, Blair said that finding a way to properly harness AI will “transform everything”.

There are downsides to consider, of course – “technology can be used for bad and for good,” Blair pointed out – but he also argued that it can transform healthcare, education and other vital services. “Government is about process, permissions, procurement,” he said. But AI can bring about changes and improvements that will allow governments to tax less and deliver greater efficiencies to citizens, according to Blair. “Many countries are already doing great things but we are only at the foothills of this revolution,” he said.

Indeed, several successful government digital transformations were discussed by the panel of experts, which included ministers that have participated in these journeys. In Togo, for example, the government created a digital platform to deliver payments to its citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. It took about 10 days to build this method of delivering financial aid via mobile and 25% of Togo’s adult population received funds as a result, according to panellist Cina Lawson, Togo’s Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation.

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The government encountered several challenges during development. The platform was built in-house since a procurement process would have taken too long, but the data analytics had to be completed externally because of a lack of government data science expertise.

And while Togo’s citizens were very happy to use the system to receive much-needed funds, there were “legacy” groups within government who were distrustful of new technology and afraid of failure, Lawson said. The key to overcoming this was top-down support from the president, which helped to align everyone behind the initiative.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has also used top-down support to ease the way for its digital initiatives, according to panellist, Maryam Al Hammadi, Minister of State, Secretary-General of the UAE Cabinet. She explained that the UAE’s wide-reaching digital transformation strategy is backed by its president, prime minister and cabinet.

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Governments as AI enablers and regulators

One of cornerstones of the UAE’s digital transformation has been the reform of its legislative system, Al Hammadi said. The aim was to protect citizens, but also to address issues such as talent and skills development by establishing new visas to attract tech entrepreneurs and experts.

Another panellist, Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), agreed that governments need to be both enablers and regulators of new technology. As well as attracting talent, this should also include establishing public and private collaborations to accelerate digital transformation.

“There is no question that we will be using AI, particularly Generative AI [GenAI], probably globally, by the end of this decade as the primary way of delivering government services,” added Thomas Siebel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, C3 AI. He said this would result in services being delivered with higher quality, greater accuracy, more satisfaction and at lower cost. While this will help make the world “a better place”, he also admitted that there are risks from bad actors.

So, while public-private collaboration should be a key area for “rewiring” governments, governance is crucial. At Annual Meeting 2025 panel Can National Security Keep Up with AI?, participants discussed concerns that governments are not necessarily “in the driver seat” when it comes to AI since so much of its development has been led by the private sector.

Nick Clegg, outgoing President, Global Affairs at Meta, said the biggest security concern about AI is that its foundation is being built by “a handful of Chinese and US companies”. As such, he said, open-source technology is going to be “vital” to ensuring AI applications – good and bad – don’t “end up in the clammy hands of a very small number of private sector operators”.

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Getting AI governance right

Clegg suggested learning lessons from the rise of social media, which has showed that governance should proceed in parallel with technology development, as much possible, “not as an afterthought a decade and a half later”. Listing several AI regulations and multilateral groups established so far on AI safety, he said these efforts have been “relatively thoughtful” by not trying to second-guess downstream risks and setting up relatively light-touch institutions.

In China, according to Xue Lan, Professor and Dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, the government’s “agile governance approach” includes a national plan and governing principles on AI development. The aim is to encourage innovation while leaving room to develop specific regulations when problems arise. Governments can involve companies when developing these regulations, Lan added.

One of the first acts by newly elected US President Donald Trump was to revoke his predecessor’s executive order on AI safety, while also announcing private sector investments of up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure. Ian Bremmer, president and founder, Eurasia Group, said the US is ensuring it has “the sharp end of the spear” on global industrial policy and technology. He suggested other regions such as the European Union need to act collectively as a result – something they are doing successfully on issues like Ukraine, but not yet on technology.

Europe does need to “close the innovation gap”, admitted panellist Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. This can happen with innovation-friendly regulations and less bureaucracy, she said. “We have to make it easier for businesses to invest,” Virkkunen continued, adding that public funding of AI is happening but that private market investments are also crucial. “We have a lot of potential but now we have to really make it happen,” she said.

Aligning with like-minded, trusted partners will be key and panellists agreed that this is a strategy that smaller countries, in particular, should also consider for a successful digital transformation. More global collaboration on issues like security could significantly boost GovTech innovation – not just with other governments, but with private sector tech companies too. Such collaborations could help governments accelerate global AI use, while also ensuring transparency, accountability and safety for their citizens.

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