Government is here to stay, and if we can find ways to introduce technology that fosters efficiency, transparency, and equitable access, we’ll have taken a massive step toward reimagining how society functions at its most fundamental levels.
When I look at the landscape of innovation over the last couple of decades, it’s astounding how dramatically the private sector has evolved. From online banking to frictionless digital services, everyday life has become easier, faster, and more convenient. Yet one space where we still don’t see the same level of progress is government. At first glance, this might seem puzzling, considering that government touches nearly every aspect of our daily existence. But in my experience, there are genuine reasons for the slow pace of change. While governments are often described as bloated or bureaucratic, most state and local agencies operate on constrained budgets, staffed by individuals who are generally underpaid and overworked. Think of a State Department of Transportation (DOT) director: in many states, this individual might oversee thousands of employees and billions of dollars in funding—responsibilities that would command a seven-figure salary in the private sector. In government, however, a DOT director might earn around $150,000. They’re clearly not doing it for the money, yet limited resources often stand in the way of the large-scale transformations we take for granted in private enterprise.
The irony, however, is that no sector is more ripe for innovation than government. As John Maynard Keynes famously wrote, “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” If we want to talk about truly transformative change, government is indeed the final frontier. In the private sector, we hear endless talk about aiming for 10x improvements or radical leaps in efficiency. That same potential exists—and is arguably needed more—in the public sector, especially with recent breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Picture how AI-powered tools, generative models, and chatbots could revolutionize constituent services. Municipal employees today can’t possibly interact one-on-one with every single resident; there are too few staff and too many demands. But an AI-driven system could scale that interaction, providing personalized assistance without adding more personnel or burdening the existing workforce. This alone could reshape how local governments respond to their communities, making public services far more accessible and user-friendly.
Equally compelling is the potential for governments to streamline their internal processes. Anyone who has prepared for a city council meeting knows the extraordinary amount of time spent gathering data, drafting agendas, and compiling reports. Much of this work is repetitive but necessary for transparency and accountability. With AI, a good portion of these tasks could be automated, giving public employees the freedom to focus on strategy, direct constituent engagement, and policy development. This isn’t just about saving time—though that is vital—but also about ensuring more accurate data analysis and more thoughtful decision-making. By shedding some of the manual drudgery, government agencies could refocus on creative problem-solving and civic innovation.
What makes this frontier especially intriguing is the sheer scale of government spending and influence. Government budgets at the state and local levels alone represent billions of dollars, and when you add in the federal government, the total addressable market is enormous. Despite this, the space is dominated by a small number of legacy players—some of which have been around for over a century—providing outdated infrastructure and deeply entrenched systems. When I launched my previous company, Waycare, an AI-based traffic management platform, our toughest competition wasn’t the next wave of hot startups; we were up against incumbents whose roots in the market ran so deep that many public agencies didn’t even think to question their technologies. It can be daunting for new entrants to overcome such inertia, but that same reality means opportunity is vast for those willing to tackle the challenge.
Early in my career, I spent a good deal of time explaining to skeptical investors why govtech was worth the effort. They saw long sales cycles, cumbersome procurement processes, and the perception that public agencies are slow to adapt. Now that I’ve built and successfully exited a startup in the space, I see how their reluctance kept them from recognizing a major open secret: government might be slow to move, but once it adopts a technology, that solution becomes embedded in critical infrastructure and often remains in place for years—touching millions of lives. It’s hard to find a comparable long-term impact in any other market. Beyond that, the potential for meaningful social impact is enormous. Virtually every aspect of life—education, housing, healthcare, public safety—is influenced by government. When we improve government services, we improve communities in ways that go far beyond mere convenience. It’s one thing to create an app that saves people five minutes in a checkout line, but quite another to transform how a city manages traffic, allocates funds to local schools, or provides resources for vulnerable populations.
In many ways, government represents our collective effort to solve society’s biggest challenges. Embracing innovation in that sphere can create ripples of positive change that are felt for generations. Yes, there are hurdles, from budget constraints to bureaucratic red tape. But these challenges also mean that government is an untapped resource for those ready to look beyond the hype of faster-moving private markets. And after all, as the well-worn saying goes, only two things in life are guaranteed: death and taxes. Government is here to stay, and if we can find ways to introduce technology that fosters efficiency, transparency, and equitable access, we’ll have taken a massive step toward reimagining how society functions at its most fundamental levels.
