Globally, citizens are increasingly ready for governments to embrace artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly two-thirds (64%) of global citizens now use AI at least weekly. At the same time, satisfaction with government digital services has fallen by 13 percentage points over the past decade, creating an opportunity for governments to use AI to improve how citizens interact with public services. 

These are among the findings of the latest publication from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Citizens Are Open to Public AI Services. Governments Must Seize the Opportunity. This eighth biennial Digital Government Citizen Survey Report is based on BCG’s largest survey to date, capturing the views of citizens across 44 countries that represent 88% of OECD countries and approximately 70% of the world's population. In Africa, the survey included respondents from Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. 

BCG’s survey found that the Middle East and Africa remains the region most comfortable with AI, despite a 9% shift towards a more neutral view. Positive sentiment has dampened over the past two years, with the proportion of respondents viewing AI as a net positive declining from 59% in 2024 to 50% in 2026, though this remains well above the global average of 36%. 

“Governments have a rare window to reshape how citizens experience public services,” said Miguel Carrasco, a BCG managing director and senior partner and co-author of the report. “People are increasingly open to AI. But they will judge success by whether services become simpler, faster, and easier to access.” 

The report highlights that citizens are increasingly comfortable with AI doing more than providing information - they want it to help deliver better public services. The survey finds growing support for AI to handle routine tasks, personalise services, and improve the citizen experience. As familiarity with AI grows, so does confidence: people with expert AI knowledge are almost seven times more likely to believe that its benefits outweigh its risks than those with no experience using the technology. 

In Kenya, net satisfaction with government digital services declined by five percentage points since 2024 to 64%, although it remains just above the global average of 63%, underscoring the progress that has been made in expanding access to and adoption of digital public services. At the same time, satisfaction is softening even as usage continues to climb. Digital government service adoption remains particularly strong at 49%, well above the global average of 38% and among the highest surveyed. 

Kenyan citizens rate government digital services almost on par with private-sector alternatives, with only a one-percentage-point gap between the two. This gap has changed little since 2024, suggesting that government has made limited progress in improving its relative performance. Only 12% of users report experiencing no issues when interacting with digital government services, the lowest figure of any market surveyed and well below the global average of 30%. This marks a modest four-percentage-point improvement since 2024.

Kenyans are among the highest AI users with 87% of respondents using AI weekly, well above the 64% global average. AI proficiency is growing rapidly; 74% of citizens identify themselves as AI proficient, eight-percentage-points higher than 2024 and well above the 63% global average. 

Kenya is one of the most AI-optimistic markets with 57% of respondents seeing AI’s benefits as greater than the risks.

"Kenya stands out for the speed at which citizens have embraced both digital public services and AI," said Takeshi Oikawa, Managing Director and Partner at BCG Nairobi. "However, increased adoption also raises expectations. Citizens are looking for services that are more reliable, easier to navigate and capable of delivering a consistently positive experience. The opportunity now is to translate strong digital engagement into stronger service outcomes."

Citizens still want humans in the loop

While citizens increasingly support AI in government, they are not calling for fully autonomous public services. Nearly two-thirds of global respondents want human oversight for AI-enabled services, particularly when decisions become more complex or consequential. 

Citizens' appetite for AI-driven public services also varies sharply by region. In the Middle East and Africa, nearly eight in ten respondents (78%) say that they are comfortable with direct AI involvement in service delivery, the highest of any region surveyed. The region also exhibited the strongest support for AI agents, with one in three respondents describing themselves as comfortable with the use of autonomous AI agents for all sorts of tasks. Europe is the most cautious, as more than a third of citizens there prefer human-led services, with AI playing a supporting role only. 

Countries whose citizens believe that government AI adoption is progressing at about the right pace report significantly higher satisfaction with digital government services than countries whose citizens perceive them as lagging behind. At the same time, trust depends on visible accountability. 

Citizen-facing safeguards build more trust in government AI than back-end process assurance does. Forty-one percent of Kenyans surveyed want independent audits, which is their top-ranked safeguard, ahead of public performance reporting (38%). “Citizens are open to greater use of AI in public services, but they also want to see clear accountability," adds Oikawa. "Independent oversight and transparency will be critical to building the trust needed to scale these technologies successfully.” 

Although public optimism toward AI continues to grow, citizens remain concerned about the ability of governments to deploy the technology responsibly. Job displacement remains the leading concern globally (cited by 32% of respondents), followed closely by the accuracy of AI-generated decisions (30%).

In the Middle East and Africa, the chief concerns are economic, not procedural. Worries about job losses due to AI exceed the global average in this region, while concerns about service delivery are below the global average. 

Job losses are the leading concern related to government use of AI in Kenya, cited by 50% of respondents, followed by concerns around accuracy (32%), and moral and ethical issues (28%). 

While Kenyans are optimistic about AI’s potential, they want confidence that its adoption will protect jobs, deliver accurate outcomes and uphold strong ethical standards.

“Kenya’s strong appetite for AI is accompanied by clear expectations around responsible implementation. Citizens want AI systems that are reliable, transparent and aligned with public values, underscoring the need to balance innovation with trust as AI adoption accelerates,” said Oikawa. 

For governments, the survey findings suggest that today's public openness to greater AI use in public services represents a window of opportunity. Citizens increasingly see AI as part of the solution to improving those services, and expectations are rising quickly.

Standing still is no longer the safe option,” said Dr. Lars Littig, a BCG managing director and senior partner and co-author of the report. “Governments have a critical opportunity to use AI to transform public services, but only if they pair innovation with accountability.”