The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is hailed as having the potential to help the South African government to overcome its problems. However, there are many questions that still need to be answered regarding the readiness of public institutions to adopt or adapt to 4IR, and readiness is up for debate. It is in the light of this that the study seeks to assess what the readiness of the public workplace to adopt 4IR is. A qualitative research approach was embraced in the study, with participants from the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality being approached through the cluster sampling technique. The data was collected using unstructured interviews and analysed using a thematic approach. The findings show that it is becoming increasingly challenging to determine whether institutions are ready to adopt or adapt to 4IR. This can be asked of a variety of structures, a department within an institution, the whole institution, or at d