The Agentic State: Reimagining Government Through AI Agents
The whitepaper “The Agentic State” authored by Luukas Ilves and published in May 2025 by the Global Government Technology Centre Berlin, offers a groundbreaking exploration of how agentic artificial intelligence (AI) will reshape the functional architecture of government. Far from being another speculative or futuristic vision, the paper is a practical and urgent call to action for policymakers, technologists, and institutional leaders to rethink the nature and structure of the state itself in the AI era.
At its core, the whitepaper defines “agentic AI” as a class of intelligent systems capable of perceiving, reasoning, and acting with minimal human intervention. These systems are not only able to automate routine tasks but can coordinate across institutions, learn over time, and even negotiate policy outcomes. Rather than merely digitizing public services as earlier reforms attempted, agentic AI promises a wholesale reorganization of government from static bureaucracies into dynamic, outcome-oriented platforms.
The report identifies ten key functional layers of government most ripe for transformation: service delivery, internal workflows, data governance, crisis response, compliance, policy and rulemaking, leadership, workforce and culture, tech stack, and procurement. In each of these domains, agentic systems offer unprecedented potential. Services can be composed on-the-fly to meet the unique needs of citizens. Internal inefficiencies can be bypassed by autonomous agents that handle unstructured data and escalate only the edge cases. Compliance can move from retrospective audits to real-time validation. Even the policymaking process could evolve into a “living law” model, constantly adjusted based on real-time data and citizen feedback.
One of the paper’s most salient points is that the Agentic State is not a purely technological transformation, but an institutional one. The adoption of agentic AI will fail without parallel shifts in leadership practices, cultural norms, and public trust. Leaders must shift from command-and-control roles to strategic orchestrators who define outcome metrics and oversee human-AI collaboration. At the same time, ethical guardrails, transparency standards, and inclusion mechanisms will be vital to avoid exacerbating inequalities or enabling misuse.
Importantly, the whitepaper cautions that while private sector AI adoption is rapidly advancing, governments must resist the temptation to copy enterprise practices without context. Public institutions have a higher burden of legitimacy, procedural fairness, and risk tolerance. Nonetheless, by leveraging open data standards, shared infrastructure, and agile regulatory models, the public sector can co-create innovation ecosystems that are both efficient and democratically accountable.
The Agentic State whitepaper is not prescriptive. Instead, it offers a blueprint for reflection and experimentation. It challenges public administrators to ask difficult but necessary questions about readiness, governance, equity, and legitimacy. As the technological baseline shifts, so too must our institutional imagination. Governments that seize the moment may not only gain efficiencies but reinvent their contract with society in a way that is more responsive, inclusive, and humane.
Disclaimer: This summary is for informational purposes only and does not guarantee accuracy or constitute legal advice. Readers are encouraged to consult the original whitepaper and engage with its authors and affiliated institutions directly.
