MeriTalk: Agentic AI in Federal Workflows & Readiness Gaps

Agentic artificial intelligence is starting to appear in federal operations. A new MeriTalk report shows 45% of federal IT leaders are already using this AI in production or operational workflows. Another 34% are exploring or piloting the technology. However, only 10% consider agentic AI operationally relevant today. The bigger challenge for agencies isn't deploying the technology; it's redesigning the work around it. In fact, 91% of federal IT leaders say workflow redesign will be a greater challenge than deployment. What's interesting is a significant gap between perceived readiness and actual action. For example, 94% say their organizations are prepared from a security perspective, but only 35% have defined human review rules. Similarly, 92% report workforce readiness, but just 33% have trained staff on agentic AI. Looking ahead, 85% expect agentic AI to become critical or very important to their missions over the next three years. This technology is expected to change the role of federal employees, with 98% of respondents anticipating this shift. The bottom line is that while federal agencies are adopting agentic AI, they still need to address crucial readiness gaps to truly integrate it effectively.