Government agencies operate under some of the most demanding conditions in the software world. The data is sensitive, the budgets are public, and the margin for error is narrow. It’s why building software for the public sector requires more than technical expertise. It requires deep familiarity with how government works.
Tom Amburgey, CEO of Euna Solutions, recently sat down with Jim Herlihy on The San Francisco Experience podcast to share how Euna approaches that challenge, what thoughtful AI adoption looks like in a risk-averse market, and why the opportunity ahead is bigger than most people realize.
Going Deep in One Industry
There’s a meaningful difference between building software for government and building software that happens to work for government. GovTech has its own rules, its own workflows, and its own accountability standards, and serving it well means going deep rather than broad.
“We only service governments. The big guys out there like Salesforce or Oracle or Microsoft, they’ve got every industry covered. We only focus on one industry. So we can be experts in it.”
That focus runs through the entire organization. A significant number of Euna’s 700 employees have government experience, giving the team a perspective on public sector needs that few software providers can match. Tom himself spent over a decade working inside municipalities in senior leadership roles before returning to the private sector to build better products from the inside.
AI as Amplifier, Not Replacement
The conversation naturally turned to artificial intelligence, and the picture Tom described is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Yes, AI is changing how software is built and how work gets done. But the idea that SaaS is dead or that AI will replace entire categories of enterprise software don’t hold up under scrutiny.
“Do I think it’s a new day? Absolutely. I think it’s a new day similar to when the Internet came out. I think this is another iteration of the evolution of how software works and how software is developed.”
At Euna, that means embedding AI into specific workflows where it adds clear value: contract validation, grant discovery, budget analysis. The goal is to help government workers move faster and make better decisions, not to replace the human judgment that public accountability demands. Because government agencies are cautious by design, Euna introduces features incrementally, proves their safety, and brings customers along at a pace they’re comfortable with.
The Real Cost of AI
One topic that doesn’t get enough airtime is cost. The sticker shock is real, and it’s not surprising when you consider the scale of investment these AI companies are making in infrastructure, talent, and processing power. The pricing model, built around tokens, catches people off guard because it doesn’t behave like traditional software licensing.
“As people become more and more dependent upon this or use it to do more and more in-depth analysis, that typically means feeding it more information. More tokens going in, and more tokens on the way back out. The cost goes up.”
For government customers operating under tight procurement rules and fixed budgets, this isn’t a minor consideration. Euna is actively evaluating consumption-based pricing models and building controls to prevent billing surprises. It’s the kind of careful, partner-first thinking that the public sector requires and that Euna has built its reputation around.
What’s Ahead
The pace of change in GovTech is accelerating, and for a company with Euna’s depth of focus, that opens doors that simply didn’t exist before. Products that once took years to evolve can now be transformed in a fraction of the time. The tools available to build, sell, and support software have never been more powerful.
Tom expects the next five to ten years in GovTech to be some of the most transformational the industry has ever seen, and Euna is excited to be part of it.
Catch the full conversation on Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.