Key Learnings from the Google Public Sector Partner Event.
There’s a quiet revolution happening in government technology, and this time, it’s not just about cloud migrations or AI adoption. It’s about identity.
At the Google Public Sector conference last week in Washington, one theme rose above the noise: AI is rewriting how government operates, but without a secure and continuous understanding of who is on the network—citizen, contractor, or cybercriminal—the entire modernization effort risks collapsing under its own complexity.
The Problem Beneath the Promise
Three new Executive Orders are driving a sweeping rewrite of how federal agencies buy and secure technology. They call for consolidating procurement, ending vendor lock-in, and accelerating adoption of commercially proven, cloud-based solutions. In other words, Washington is finally trying to buy like the private sector.
But as the sessions unfolded—from Gemini for Government to modular contracting—one truth became clear: identity is the single point of failure that no amount of AI can fix on its own.
Today, every agency has a different stack of identity tools stitched together by outdated credentials and siloed directories. The result? A digital battlefield with thousands of entry points and no shared perimeter. Attackers don’t need to breach the system anymore; they just need to become someone who already belongs.
The New Procurement Mandate: Zero Trust by Design
The shift toward “modular contracting” is more than procurement jargon. It’s a strategic opportunity to embed the identity-centric principles of Zero Trust Identity into every layer of public sector modernization. The FAR rewrite and related legislation are pushing agencies to adopt standards-based, not brand-based, architectures. That’s a quiet revolution, and it’s good for innovators.
SOFTwarfare’s takeaway from the event was simple but profound:
Identity must become the first module in every modernization contract, not an afterthought buried under infrastructure or AI line items.
Every Gemini agent, every AI model, and every automated workflow relies on verifying “who” is behind the command. If identity isn’t continuous, context-aware, and compliant, AI will only automate the wrong things faster.
AI Without Identity Is Automation Without Accountability
Google’s message was clear: the future of public sector work is agentic. Gemini for Government will enable low-code and no-code AI agents to triage tasks, summarize data, and manage operations across millions of records. That’s the promise.
But it also means agencies will soon be running thousands of autonomous agents capable of executing decisions, sometimes without a human in the loop. Without identity integrity, there’s no assurance that an AI system’s actions are traceable or lawful.
Continuous authentication, behavioral verification, and multi-layered identity assurance aren’t luxuries anymore; they’re prerequisites for trust in the AI age.
A Call for American-Led Identity Innovation
The conference underscored one final, often overlooked point: Made in America matters again. Policymakers are now favoring domestic partners who can deliver interoperable, compliant, and secure solutions built for federal scale.
That’s exactly where SOFTwarfare operates: building our Zero Trust Identity® platform, designed and deployed in the U.S., to protect both defense and civilian networks with continuous authentication that doesn’t trade security for usability.
The next chapter of public sector modernization won’t be written in policy memos or AI demos; it will be defined by how well we protect digital identity at scale.
Everything else—AI agents, open clouds, modular procurement—depends on getting that right.
About SOFTwarfare
SOFTwarfare is a U.S.-based cybersecurity company that delivers Zero Trust Identity®—a continuous authentication platform trusted by defense and enterprise clients. Our mission is to safeguard America’s digital future by making identity the foundation of every secure system. Learn more at softwarfare.com.
