If they want to stay competitive with the private sector, public agencies need to invest in emerging technologies like machine learning and biometrics in order to attract highly-trained professionals, argues a new report from Accenture.

Entitled Emerging Technologies in Public Service, the report is based on “an online survey of 774 technology leaders in public service organizations”, according to a statement announcing the findings. Individuals polled resided across Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Singapore, the UK, and the US.

The survey found that eight in 10 respondents agreed that embracing emerging technologies could help employee retention, and 60 percent agreed that such investments would “increase the range of relevant skills in the organization.” Sixty percent cited intelligent process automation as the most needed emerging technology, with some variation between respondent nations when it came to other sought-after technologies: Biometrics and identity analytics professionals are in demand in Finland, while Norwegians are looking mostly for language processing specialists, and Singapore show high demand for specialists in video analytics, biometrics and identity, and the IoT.

While market incentives and, in the case of biometrics, security needs are increasingly pushing private sector companies to embrace these kinds of emerging technologies, Accenture’s report points out that organizations, particularly those in the public sector, should also seek them out to help draw and keep talented professionals in the public workforce.