AGENTIC experience INDEX, SEPTEMBER 2026
Government
People are letting AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini check what they are entitled to, and apply for services.
We’ve tested how 33 government websites in Belgium and the Netherlands
deal with agents.
What we TESTED
Steps when applying for a service
done by an agent.
Establish the entitlement
Does this citizen qualify for a specific service or subsidy?
Prepare the application
Which documents, which deadline, which office.
Prove who you are
itsme, eID or DigiD.
File the application
Submit it and get a reference number back.
Track it to the decision
Follow the file and answer the follow-up letter on time.
This is how governments
in the Benelux scored.
Key numbers
This is the agentic readiness
of public services today
Nearly all are part of the conversation
of 33 websites
Friction is by design: the login is a choice
27 of 33 websites
Not one application could be started
0 of 32 transactional tasks
So what does an
agentic experience
in government look like?
Most public services
Agents can hint,
but they can’t help.
An agent can advise on every task, and complete none of them. Everything is legible; nothing is doable. This is a choice, and there is something to be said for it.
KVK
Lets your agent start
an application.
Publishes a reachable OpenAPI spec and a public catalogue, and every task reached “can advise”. An agent can establish what a citizen is entitled to and what it costs. It stops at DigiD, which is the system working, not failing.
What about the rest?
of 33
Invisibles
An agent cannot reach or read them, they are just not part of the conversation.
of 33
Informers
Agents can get in and answer a question, but they cannot complete a job.
Showroom
Everything on display but no till. Usually by accident.
Gatekeeper
The task can only be completed behind a login, identity app, or in a dedicated app. Deliberate, every time.
of 33
Actors
Agents can complete at least one job end to end.
Always a decision to point outwards.
What answers did our agents get?
This gets us thinking.
Opportunity
How governments can become more agentic.
— Open up to agents
Keep the information coming.
People increasingly use agents to look for information, so it’s great to see government websites being readable. Making more open data available would also help with more advanced agentic use cases.
— Become an agent
Offer trust and ease of use.
Moving applications behind a portal/app gate is the right move from a trust standpoint. But that puts the burden on those portals: they need to be just as agentically capable to get the job done, as the big players. Let people or enterprises tell you their goal, and work it out for them.
Find out
how you
are doing
33 companies
20 in Belgium, 13 in The Netherlands.
Each was asked the same 3 tasks: