GSA’s AI Strategy: Using The Tech While Learning How To Buy It

“WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY” By Nick Wakeman, Editor In Chief

“In deploying its own AI chatbot, the General Services Administration is also developing frameworks for government-wide acquisition at the same time.”

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“In many ways, the General Services Administration is taking a two-pronged approach to artificial intelligence by learning how to use the tech internally and buy it for other agencies.

“AI is already in the government, but it is going to get much, much bigger,” said Larry Allen, GSA’s associate administrator for government-wide policy and chief acquisition officer. Allen was speaking as part of a GovExec TV program.

The agency has created GSAi, an AI chatbot, that the agency intends to use as a force multiplier.

GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service and Public Building Service are using GSAi to give employees quicker access to regulatory information and to automate research tasks.

Allen demonstrated the tool’s use with this practical example:

“You feed the AI system prompts like, ‘I’d like to understand what all of the statutory requirements are for government,’ and you identify which laws are associated with it, and they’ll come right back with a list of laws that impact government acquisition.”

This capability can accelerate market research and is helping to rewrite acquisition regulations.

“Having to go through and research every little line item to see what statute it goes to. AI can assist with that,” Allen added.

GSA is also looking at how AI can help improve contract drafting and evaluation.

“We’re also talking about how we can use it to make our contracts better, how we can put out better statements of work. GSA AI can help with that, and it can also help with evaluating some of the offers,” Allen said.

Human judgement will stay central to how GSA makes decisions. Contracting officers will still decide how government money is spent.

“But we’ve got lots of ways that AI can assist in that process,” he said.

While GSA is implementing AI internally, it is also working out the mechanisms for agencies to procure the technology.

Allen said two models are already emerging, Allen said. One is in subscription-based services similar to cloud computing, where agencies pay a monthly fee. A second is token-based models that allow for more specific, on-demand access.

“You can buy it via tokens, which is kind of the ‘provide seat, whatever activity I want to do today with AI.’ So, I use my token to do that, play that one AI game in the arcade, if you will,” Allen said.

But the newness of the AI market creates challenges for procurement officials, especially when it comes to determining fair pricing.

“What is going to be key for contracting officers and others is how to identify price reasonableness,” he said. “How do we get to the point where we’re making sure that the government is paying fair and reasonable, competitive pricing for AI solutions?”

The AI market is still in its developmental phase across both commercial and public sector markets.

“The more mature the market gets, the better we’re going to be able to streamline our price reasonableness identification. But right now, that’s going to be a little tricky,” he said.

Allen said there are parallels between AI adoption and the early days of computing. Successful AI implementations will drive wider acceptance, he said.

“No one in government likes to be the first to use most technologies,” he said. “It took a long time for the government to adopt cloud computing… once the first two or three agencies tried it, and the cloud didn’t come down with thunder and lightning on it, it was okay for everybody else to use it too.”

A similar pattern should happen with AI. Agencies will have success stories to share and those early wins may create a culture where AI is the norm, he said.

However, do not expect the government to mirror the commercial world’s adoption of AI and primarily because of security requirements.

“The United States government has to have protections in place in order to ensure that its systems remain secure,” Allen said. “But is there a tremendous amount of upside potential to make more use of AI? Absolutely.”

GSA’s AI Strategy: Using The Tech While Learning How To Buy It

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology and joined the publication in 1996 as a staff writer. He’s a graduate of Bridgewater College and earned a masters degree from American University.