Brady PieperThe General Services Administration (GSA) is continuing its strategy to modernize government systems by unveiling a Request for Information (RFI) for the tech industry to guide and cultivate the agency’s next single, end-to-end integrated procurement system.
The RFI, announced by GSA on Aug. 18, marks the next step in the agency’s plan to integrate innovative information technologies (IT) into existing systems across the federal government. The request will also build upon a newly announced experimental tech platform, titled USAi, that allows federal agencies to test artificial intelligence (AI) models before implementing them in government systems.
Through the GSA’s RFI for the Procurement Ecosystem Initiative – Market Research, the agency will invite feedback from industry stakeholders and partners to inform the agency’s next procurement system. GSA will pursue feedback from a wide range of vendors and industry associations, including:
- IT service providers.
- Data architecture and storage experts.
- Firms specializing in AI.
- Data analytics companies.
- User experience designers.
- Small businesses.
The agency will utilize the acquired feedback to shape the program’s vision and future goals while integrating AI to unlock efficiencies in federal purchasing processes. Primarily, the responses will shape the basis for a single, integrated, collaborative and data-driven federal procurement ecosystem that improves transparency and drives economic impact, according to RFI documents.
The RFI targets existing inefficiencies in the current acquisition workforce, including lack of standardization, slow data collection and entry processes, and loss of industry knowledge and best practices.
Responses may also cover certain customer and supplier processes, such as interconnectability, manual reentry, data formatting, contract metrics and notifications, to better inform a unified environment for federal government contracting.
Stakeholders looking to provide feedback may do so through the GSA’s website. The agency will accept White Papers as responses to the RFI, which must encompass a provided draft Request for Qualifications and answers to GSA’s published questions.
Following recent streamlined trends across federal agencies, the GSA will accept industry feedback until Aug. 29 — a somewhat reduced timeline.
Agency officials anticipate releasing additional supportive actions following this RFI to further the nation’s efficiency, AI and procurement modernization. This RFI also aligns with the Trump administration’s “AI Action Plan” and government efficiency efforts. Future follow-on engagements could include industry days, additional RFIs, one-on-ones or draft solicitations, according to RFI documents.
Photo by G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, from Wikimedia Commons
