While the General Services Administration (GSA) overhauls the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), it is also grappling with how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the federal acquisition process, Jeffrey Koses, a senior GSA procurement executive, said Wednesday.
GSA has announced nearly two dozen OneGov deals since launching the initiative in April to streamline federal IT acquisitions through standardized terms and pricing. Many of those include AI products from companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity.
As the agency continues to roll out those agreements, Koses said GSA is evaluating how AI is altering everything from solicitation design to proposal evaluation.
“We’re trying to really learn how do we operate? How do we leverage the potential?” Koses said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, noting that GSA is reassessing the terms and conditions needed to use AI and how vendors respond to solicitations.
Koses pointed to a growing risk that AI could harm the integrity of the acquisition process, citing an uptick in protests and filings that rely on AI-generated content, including fabricated cases and citations – a byproduct of ongoing concerns about hallucinations.
He said GSA is working to ensure procurement does not devolve into “who can write the best prompt,” while rethinking solicitation strategies, evaluation methods, and timelines as AI lowers proposal costs and expands the pool of bidders.
“[Companies] … need to have confidence that it’s a fair process and outcome, but we need to be able to move through there fast to meet our timeliness goals,” Koses said, adding that many questions remain about AI’s long-term impact on acquisitions.
Koses acknowledged that OneGov is still in its early stages, with its initial focus on software, AI, and other emerging technologies. Those deals are being struck by Federal Acquisition Service experts who work with original equipment manufacturers to understand the tools and bring offerings to the table quickly, he said.
While that will continue in the future – he noted strong industry interest in OneGov – GSA’s next step will be to standardize AI-specific terms and conditions to support OneGov deals over the long term.