By Kiyon Brandford
Acquisition professionals across the federal government are using artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to find companies to provide them with the products and services they need. Agencies and the Administration have taken steps to assist federal employees with an education on what artificial intelligence is and how it will affect their jobs respectively. This includes the White Houses’ Memorandum titled “Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence” in addition to the Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) roll-out of the “Digital On-Demand” learning platform where decision-makers can learn at their own pace about the characteristics and uses for A.I. among others. Let’s take a look at some of the government’s initiatives that directly impact federal contracting:
- Department of Homeland Security’s Procurement Innovation Lab (PIL)
The Department of Homeland Security has an entire office dedicated to developing innovative solutions for acquisition professionals to improve the efficiency and quality of their procurements. During fiscal year 2023 they’ve been internally piloting AI tools made specifically for market research. When these tools become widely available, it will become even more important for companies to tailor their registrations to be easily found by artificial intelligence.
- AI.gov, the federal government’s website for artificial intelligence initiatives
AI.gov was launched at the beginning of the Biden Administration and it has been used as the hub for educating, recruiting, and tracking the uses of artificial intelligence across the federal government. Here you can read AI Use Cases for several different agencies like the GSA’s Acquisition Analytics tool that provides detailed data on past transactions and categorizes them into the government’s category management taxonomy.
- The National A.I. Advisory Committees recommendations: “AI’s Procurement Challenge”
The National A.I. Advisory Committee was established to provide advice to the President and the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office on matters related to the United States leading the way on safe but effective artificial intelligence practices. In October 2023, they released a report that made a key recommendation for each federal agency to prioritize AI procurement for realizing its mission. They recommend AI be considered for use in various parts of the procurement process including the development of Statements of Objective, Quality Assurance Surveillance Plans (QASP), teaming agreements, Work Plans, contractual terms, and in-domain evaluations.
The era of artificial intelligence is here and the federal government has decided to embrace this emerging technology. In the next few years, artificial intelligence will permeate throughout government processes, strategies, and tactics. It will be crucial for companies seeking to do business with the federal government to be knowledgeable about artificial intelligence and the emerging technologies being used to find and screen potential vendors. Without intentional preparation and planning, it will be difficult to properly position to be found by these tools so don’t wait! The time to prepare your company is now.
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