The document summarizes the five biggest tech trends transforming governments in 2022: 1) Digital identity management to verify citizens digitally. 2) Automation of public services using AI like chatbots and cobots. 3) Increased focus on cyber security against state-sponsored hacking. 4) Exploration of national cryptocurrencies to modernize monetary systems. 5) Rise of "govtech" startups innovating solutions for government challenges.

1. THE FIVE BIGGEST TECH TRENDS
TRANSFORMING GOVERNMENTS IN
2022

2. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
THE FIVE BIGGEST TECH TRENDS
TRANSFORMING GOVERNMENTS IN 2022
The digital transformation of governments and public authorities has been
accelerated during the global pandemic. Here we look at the key technology trends,
including digital identity management, automation of public services using artificial
intelligence, the increasing importance of cyber security as well as the role of
national cryptocurrencies.

3. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Governments and public authorities are no more immune to disruption from the advance of technology
than any other part of society. Many of the challenges facing public bodies today stem from the fight to
tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic. Often, government institutions found that by adopting similar
tactics and strategies to industry and the private sector, they too could learn to become more flexible
and agile in their response.
This has meant that they also have experienced an accelerated rate of digital transformation.
Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and digital twins are now
firmly on the agenda of governments and public bodies, whereas previously, they might just have been
on the roadmap. Many governments, particularly in more developed nations, have discovered they
simply can’t afford to be complacent when there is the chance to drive so much positive change.
So with that in mind, here’s my rundown of some of the biggest and most important tech trends that
are affecting governments in 2022.

4. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
DIGITAL IDENTITY
Proving who you are – or who someone else is – is an increasingly vital ability for
individuals and governments in the digital age. Many governments have developed
centralized systems for checking criminal records as well as verifying the rights of access
to state support such as healthcare and benefits. Other governments have taken it further
by implementing compulsory or voluntary national identity cards. Additionally, identity
schemes may or may not include biometric measures, like fingerprints, linking an
individual as a physical entity to their digital identity as conclusively as is currently possible.

5. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Privacy and the level of state control that the population is happy to accept over their lives
is, of course, an issue central to the concept of national digital identity. Some of the most
forward-looking initiatives today are focused on decentralized identity, which uses
blockchain and distributed ledger technology to create identity databases that are
controlled by algorithms rather than institutions. Pilot projects involving decentralized
identification built on Microsoft platforms are taking place in the UK, Tokyo, and Belgium.
Additionally, the EU has stated that blockchain technology should play a part in “enhancing”
the European digital identity framework.

6. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
AI AND AUTOMATION OF PUBLIC SERVICES
Chatbots are one example of an AI-powered application that we will see more of in 2022 as governments
and authorities look for ways to automate public services. In the US, federal, state, and local authorities are
all stepping up experiments in the use of natural language processing (NLP) technologies to reduce
customer friction. In particular, they have been widely used with services that received large volumes of calls
during the pandemic. In the Republic of Ireland, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners created an AI-
powered virtual agent that offers 24/7 help for citizens struggling to complete their tax returns. AI-powered
“cobots” will also increasingly be used by human public service workers and civil servants, for example, by
augmenting their ability to find information, automating repetitive tasks such as form-filling, or maintaining
national records archives and public databases. Governments clearly have to give some different
considerations to the particular applications of AI compared to those by companies – given the compulsory
and sometimes essential nature of the services they provide. But once citizens become comfortable that AI-
powered assistants, chatbots and cobots are capable of saving them time, we will undoubtedly see them
rolled out in many other public service functions, just as we are increasingly seeing it in the private sector. In
fact, Gartner analysts have forecast that 75% of governments will have at least three enterprise-wide
automation initiatives underway by 2024.

7. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
CYBER SECURITY
With state-on-state cyberattacks increasing in line with the growth in criminal cyber-attacks,
security is high on the agenda when it comes to national technological priorities. The Solar
Winds/ Nobelum attacks of late 2020 serve as a good example, where attacks widely believed
to have been backed by Russian state agencies simultaneously hit around 18,000 targets,
including US federal agencies. The highly sophisticated attack was aimed at exposing data by
exploiting flaws in commonly-used software. When the attack was discovered, it was found that
hackers may have had the ability to monitor the activity of government email accounts for
months. Similarly, an attack by Chinese hacking group Hafnium that accessed 250,000 email
accounts around the globe was also declared to have been state-sponsored.

8. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Even before this, cybersecurity was widely seen as a defense priority. In 2021, the US government
announced that it would provide assistance to businesses with defending themselves from attack
by nation-states. The visible element of this strategy can be seen in attempts to expose and
publicize these attacks in order to educate the public on the threat and the methods of defense
that are available. Other governments responded by enhancing their own cyber defense
capabilities, such as the UK Government, which formed the UK Cyber Security Council. This trend
will undoubtedly continue throughout 2022 as state-sponsored attacks intended to disrupt
commercial activity, supply chains, and infrastructure continue to pose a threat.

9. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
NATIONAL CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Not every country is likely to follow in the footstep of El Salvador and adopt Bitcoin as legal
tender in 2022. But we will certainly continue to see a growth in governments looking to
integrate cryptocurrencies with their central banking systems.
More countries are expected to go down the route of creating their own digital currencies.
These have the benefits that they will still be under the control of the issuing governments
while offering many of the infrastructural advantages of existing cryptocurrencies, such as not
requiring bank accounts to store them or payment tools to spend them. The US, UK, China,
Singapore, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Estonia, Tunisia, and Ecuador are all known to be at
varying stages of investigating or implementing national digital currencies using blockchain
technology.

10. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
The obvious advantages that cryptocurrency as a monetary system offers are clearly
enough to get governments and central banks interested, but there are questions that
need to be answered – specifically around the environmental cost and energy use – that
may have political consequences. This means state cryptocurrency is likely to become an
increasingly hot topic as we move through 2022 and beyond.

11. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
THE RISE OF GOVTECH STARTUPS
Of course, government organizations themselves are not always renowned for their agility and innovation
when it comes to developing new technology. This has left the field open for a new breed of startup referred
to as “govtechs” to bring new thinking to the challenge of driving the digital revolution in public bodies.
Accenture estimates that the market for providing these solutions is worth around $400 billion per year, so
there’s ample incentive to get involved. Many take their cue from consumer technology innovators or
disruptors in other verticals such as fintech by applying similar solutions – AI, IoT, cloud, edge computing,
super-fast networks to government and public body challenges. Technology investor PUBLIC estimates that
there are around 2,000 govtech startups in Europe alone, mainly focused in the UK, France, and Germany.
With government adoption of technology clearly having the potential to affect many of our lives, it’s as exciting
to see that innovation is as rife here as it is in more traditionally lucrative fields such as finance technology
(fintech) and marketing technology (martech). Hopefully, this will lead to an end to situations such as the one
identified by a UK government report in 2020 that found the country was likely to spend up to £22 billion
maintaining support for obsolete systems.

12. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
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‘Tech Trends in Practice’ and ‘Business Trends in Practice.'

13. © 2021 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker,
futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and
companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data
more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as
artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is
a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for
Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers
and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

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