7 May 2025
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7 May 2025
Governments are navigating significant and rapid change. What’s Top of Mind for Public Servants 2026 is a report highlighting five challenges that reveal a curious, pragmatic workforce determined to deliver better outcomes for citizens, despite mounting pressure. The five top themes emerging from the report are career development; artificial intelligence; efficiency; systems thinking; and climate.
Apolitical’s network spans half a million public servants and policymakers in 170 countries. The new insights report draws on 250 qualitative interviews, 150 polls, nearly 400 surveys, 95,000 event sign-ups and 62,000 course enrolments, offering a unique snapshot of the world’s largest workforce:
2026 is a transformational moment: 77% of public servants say that government is experiencing ‘significant’ change
Public servants want to become more confident and comfortable with artificial intelligence. However, 39% say AI training is still their top ask, and 29% say receiving guidance on AI is a top priority.
Public servants continue to be pressed for time, with emails and meetings taking up a noteworthy portion of their working hours: 46% send up to 50 emails a day, and a significant percentage (28%) report spending up to 20 hours a week in meetings.
Rather than just being passive recipients of change, public servants are actively building the skills and tools needed for modern government. They are seeking out practical ways to use AI in everyday work and embracing continuous learning as part of the job. Investing in training and capability-building remains one of the single biggest drivers of government’s ability to adapt and deliver in a rapidly changing world.