Issue Government: low AI adoption risks compounding Talent Debt

Summary

Governments must modernise their own workforces while also preparing citizens and local industries for an economy shaped by AI. EY studies find that the public sector still adopts AI at comparatively low rates, mainly because of worries about trust and governance. Some jurisdictions are nonetheless moving, with national skills initiatives in the UK, Singapore and South Korea and structured reskilling for civil servants in Australia, the UAE and the EU. EY judges that most governments remain far from sharing intelligence across people and systems. The danger is a growing Talent Debt that erodes administrative capacity and service quality just when demand for capable public institutions is rising and public trust is falling.