The public sector is experiencing a shift towards leveraging real-time data and modernizing applications, which ultimately leads to improved reliability of services, operational efficiency, and delivering critical insights in real-time. This shift is also enabling organizations to unlock new opportunities with artificial intelligence (AI) through the combination of data streaming, timely stream processing, and data governance. The concept of "shifting left" is being applied to power innovative solutions, including generative AI applications, and public sector leaders are asking how they can do the same. Shifting left allows organizations to address common data quality issues, reduce duplication, and cut processing costs, which are critical for building safe, secure, and trustworthy AI applications. The shift left approach also involves adopting a "what if" mindset to set the end goal for data use and working backwards to get there. Additionally, a data-first approach is being adopted, focusing on meeting the various needs across an enterprise, improving data literacy, and developing risk frameworks alongside AI development. Generative AI has been a key step in unlocking the future of AI, enabling models that can be used for multiple purposes, and agentic AI is expected to enable AI-driven agents that can reason and act. The Department of Defense's CJADC2 concept aims to connect data-centric information from all branches of service, partners, and allies into an internet of military things, making information accessible anywhere and anytime. Confluent partners are utilizing data streaming to fuel data-centric approaches to operational challenges, enabling decision superiority in the DoD, providing a "clean room" for cross-agency collaboration, predictive maintenance, and entity resolution.