...its time for the Public Service to shift to a modern tech stack

Citizens deserve better

Let’s be honest. Governments have not been as proactive or deliberate as they should have been when it comes to modernising their technology. While industries across the board have made major advances, the public sector has often lagged behind. Systems are outdated. Data sits in silos. Many services are slow, difficult to use, or simply fail to meet people’s expectations.

Citizens expect better. And they should. The technology exists today to make government more helpful, more responsive, and more efficient. So why are so many agencies still stuck using decades-old systems that are costly to maintain and hard to improve?

It’s time to ask the hard question: is now the moment for the public service to leap forward and fully embrace a modern technology stack?

The current state: slow, siloed and stuck

Across the public sector, too many systems are built for yesterday. Software is often specific to one agency. Applications tend to be large, hard to change, and rarely talk to each other. Critical updates can take months or even years. This means new services take too long to build and citizens are left frustrated.

A few key problems keep coming up:

• Old infrastructure: Many systems still run on physical servers or fixed virtual machines. These setups are hard to scale and expensive to run. They’re built for peak demand, which means a lot of computing power sits unused most of the time.

• Lack of shared tools: Most governments don’t have common digital building blocks like reusable digital ID, payments systems, or data-sharing platforms. This forces every agency to build things from scratch or find complicated workarounds.

• Limited openness: Few public service systems are built using open-source code or published standards. That makes it hard to innovate, hard to audit, and harder still to work across agencies or borders.

• Policy not made for machines: Most laws, rules and entitlements are still written for humans to read, not machines to process. This means they can't be turned into code that enables faster, more transparent decisions.

Together, these issues mean higher costs, slower delivery, and services that don’t reflect how people live their lives.

Leapfrogging to smarter, faster government

But here’s the good news: public services can skip the slow, painful transition and jump ahead. By shifting to a modern technology stack, governments can unlock faster service design, more resilient infrastructure, and systems that are built for today—and tomorrow.

A modern “stack” means using reusable building blocks: digital identity, messaging, payments, data platforms, and common user interfaces. These pieces run in the cloud and are designed to work across agencies. They strip out complexity, save time, and reduce costs.

Even better, many of these tools are already being developed as digital public goods. They’re open, standardised, and built to be shared across countries. Governments don’t need to invent everything from scratch—they can collaborate and customise as needed.

This isn’t just about keeping up with the private sector. It’s about making digital government work better for everyone.

Ready for the AI era

What’s coming next is even more important. New tools powered by AI—especially what’s known as “agentic AI”—will soon be capable of carrying out complex tasks on behalf of users. But these agents can’t do much unless the underlying government systems are ready to support them.

That means building a stack that is smart, secure, and adaptable. Imagine systems where:

• Digital agents know who they are, who they’re working for, and what they’re allowed to do.

• Payments can happen automatically, based on clear rules and verified outcomes.

• Citizens and businesses interact with government through voice, chat, or apps—without having to know which agency does what.

• Rules and laws are written in a format that both humans and machines can understand, update and enforce.

• Data can be shared safely and responsibly across agencies, without breaching trust.

This is what a future-ready government stack should look like: one that supports fast, smart and trustworthy services.

What the future stack should include

Let’s paint a clearer picture of what a modern public service technology stack might look like in practice. It would include the following layers and components:

• Cloud-native infrastructure: Systems should be elastic, efficient and affordable. Governments don’t need to own every server—they just need strong service agreements and the ability to scale up or down quickly.

• Shared digital tools: These include universal digital ID, secure messaging, open payment systems, and common registers. These tools should be open-source or co-developed with trusted partners to reduce duplication and increase speed.

• Smart data platforms: Governments need a clear, secure way to collect, catalogue, and access data. That includes protections for privacy and tools that allow learning from data without exposing sensitive information.

• Simulation environments: Before making big policy changes or technology updates, governments need safe spaces to test ideas. These ‘digital twins’ can help prevent errors and build public confidence.

• Programmable rules and payments: Entitlements, laws and subsidies should be built into code. This means decisions can be made quickly and automatically—with full audit trails and options for review.

• AI-ready identity and authorisation: Both humans and machines should have verifiable credentials. That way, agents can act only within their limits—and every action can be traced back to someone or something accountable.

• Unified user experience: Whether it’s via chat, voice, or apps, users should not have to figure out how government is structured. The system should meet them where they are—on their devices, in their language, with accessibility built in.

• Governance and transparency tools: Every decision made by an agent should be explainable. Citizens and auditors should be able to see what happened, why, and how to challenge it if needed.

Getting governance right

Perhaps the most important part of this new stack is the governance layer. This is where public control, trust and accountability live.

Even in a world of fast-moving technology, governments must remain in charge of the rules. That means defining which agents can act, under what authority, and with what oversight. It also means having tools in place to stop or reverse actions when something goes wrong.

Governments should embrace shared standards and open tools—but they must not give up control of how decisions are made or enforced. This is about building public trust, not just public systems.

The moment for bold action

We’re at a crossroads. Public service can either continue down the path of patching up outdated systems—or it can take a bold leap forward and build the foundations for modern, responsive, people-first services.

This isn’t just about technology. It’s about dignity, fairness, and making sure every citizen gets the services they need without confusion, delay or frustration. It’s about moving from slow, scattered systems to something smart, joined-up and built for the real world.

Citizens deserve a public service that works like the best parts of the modern world: simple, fast, and effective. We already have the tools and knowledge to make this happen. What we need now is the will—and the urgency—to act.

The future won’t wait. It’s time to build the public service our communities deserve. Let’s not settle for catching up. Let’s leap ahead.

See https://www.georgejamesconsulting.com/ for more.