Stanton Outlines GSA Vision for Procurement Automation Ecosystem

The General Services Administration (GSA)’s proposed procurement automation ecosystem will help drive better acquisition outcomes, acting Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Laura Stanton said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the 2026 ITVMO Annual Summit on May 6, Stanton said GSA is focused on leveraging automation to connect currently fragmented procurement systems.

“We’re looking at this procurement automation ecosystem to reduce our manual workload and speed up buying and increase confidence in compliance and security,” Stanton said.

“The vision is a connected operating environment that brings people, process, data, technology, and governance into a system that operates as one,” she said.

The effort builds on a request for information GSA issued last year seeking industry input on an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven procurement ecosystem designed to support every stage of the acquisition lifecycle.

By connecting tools and platforms across the procurement lifecycle, Stanton said GSA would gain better insight into both acquisition performance and mission delivery.

“[That] gives us that visibility to be able to see not only how competitive was the acquisition, but how well is that acquisition actually delivering, and how well is that mission being met,” she said.

Stanton pointed to several procurement functions that could benefit from increased automation, including market research, clause selection, responsibility checks, moving data between systems, and tracking delivery.

“By taking some of the work off the plate, we also free up the contracting officers to focus on their judgment, their strategy, and engagement with the program officers and offices in industry,” Stanton said, adding, “And we want to be able to build something that’s modular and flexible over time.”

“This also plays into the broader procurement consolidation strategy, as more and more buying moves through these shared services and government-wide solutions, we need that IT infrastructure to be able to support that role,” she said.

Notably, GSA announced this week that it reorganized FAS into five portfolios and launched a new office focused on automation and AI as part of a broader push to consolidate federal procurement.

GSA said the change directly supports President Donald Trump’s executive orders on workforce optimization and procurement consolidation under GSA.