Web4 and the public sector: How agentic technology can transform government services

COMMENTARY | Citizens deserve government services that work as intuitively as their favorite consumer applications. Web4 provides the architectural foundation to make that vision reality.

Public sector IT leaders face an unprecedented challenge: citizens demand commercial-like, cutting-edge digital experiences while organizations grapple with legacy systems, budget constraints and complex regulatory requirements. As we witness the emergence of Web4 — the Agentic Web — forward-thinking technology leaders have an opportunity to leapfrog traditional modernization approaches and deliver transformative public services.

From static portals to intelligent services

The evolution of web technology mirrors the transformation of public sector and overall digital services. Web 1.0 gave us basic government websites with downloadable forms and static information — a digital filing cabinet. Web 2.0 introduced citizen portals and online transactions, allowing residents to renew licenses and pay taxes online.

Web3 promised transparency and trust through distributed-ledger databases, immutable records and decentralized identity management. While Web3 technologies ...