DIA considering new AI-powered platform to streamline procurement system
The Defense Intelligence Agency is taking steps toward the potential launch of an artificial intelligence prototype project as it seeks new technologies to overcome inefficiencies in its procurement enterprise.
The DIA — which has a workforce of more than 16,000 personnel and is tasked with providing intel support to the military and Intelligence Community — issued an RFI on June 17 to inform its pursuit of a next-generation, AI-powered “acquisition platform.”
The organization is “exploring innovative approaches to improve the effectiveness, usability, transparency, and speed of the federal acquisition lifecycle through an AI-enabled procurement environment integrated with FAR, DFAR, and Agency processes,” officials wrote in the sources-sought notice. “The envisioned capability would support acquisition professionals, program offices, legal and policy stakeholders, and industry participants with tools that improve market research, requirements development, solicitation drafting, proposal intake support, evaluation workflows, compliance checks, procurement analytics, and post-award insights.”
The release of the RFI comes as the Pentagon and IC are on the hunt for new artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to eliminate drudge work for their employees and streamline back-office functions.
The DIA’s business operations currently rely on outdated tech and manual processes that waste workers’ time, according to the notice.
“The goal of embedding AI technology into an existing and recurring process is to reduce inefficiencies from manual tasks, workflows, requirements writing, and increase accuracy of repetitive tasks. The objective of solving this problem seeks to identify innovative concepts, commercial solutions, technical architectures, and implementation approaches for a prototype of a next generation AI-powered acquisition procurement system,” officials wrote.
To get after that, the agency is requesting white papers from industry as it considers launching the new prototyping effort using other transaction authority. Such an undertaking would be aimed at demonstrating commercially available solutions, not systems that require significant development efforts, per the notice.
A potential use case for a new AI-powered acquisition platform would be to enhance market research by aggregating, organizing, and summarizing relevant acquisition, vendor, pricing, capability, and historical procurement information, according to the RFI.
Other envisioned use cases for the tech include generating “accurate clause recommendations and clause matrices across [Federal Acquisition Regulation] Part 16 contract types, including logic based on contract structure, competition approach, commerciality, funding, socioeconomic considerations,” and other factors; producing draft acquisition documentation, such as “Determinations and Findings” and “Justifications and Approvals” documents; and supporting “role-based access, data segregation, records management, and configurable business rules to align with defense acquisition processes,” among other tasks, according to the notice.
Industry white papers are due July 2. DIA officials anticipate awarding other transaction agreements to one or more vendors for the prototyping effort, per the RFI.
When Marine Lt. Gen. James Adams took the helm at the agency earlier this year, he noted the benefits of AI and the need for technology modernization.
“DIA must continue to evolve at the speed, scale and complexity of modern warfare. Currently, through initiatives focused on the modernization of our data systems and sharing that data through a common intelligence feed, DIA is transforming how we enable decision-making at the speed of relevance. Through artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and open-source analysis, DIA is already accelerating our ability to generate new insights,” Adams said during an assumption of directorship ceremony in February.
“It is my responsibility, our responsibility, to develop and empower our workforce to remove obstacles that detract from mission accomplishment and ensure every analyst, operator, technologist and support professional can focus on what matters most — delivering insight, credible warning and operational capability to the combatant commands, the services and policymakers on time and on target,” he added.
