Event round-up: AI in public procurement – key insights
The session followed up on an April 2024 roundtable, confirming that while AI presents significant opportunities and the teams have real progress to show, its integration is challenged by issues of trust and transparency.
The trust hurdle
A primary obstacle for wider adoption is cultural hesitation among stakeholders on all sides, often driven by an unrealistic "expectation that the AI will get it right 100% of the time", a standard not applied to human processes.
This expectation fuels concerns over accountability and potential legal challenge, particularly if AI is used for sensitive tasks like bid ‘sifting’ without oversight. There is optimism that AI could ultimately offer more objective transparency compared to inherent human subjectivity.
Departmental progress and managing risk responsibly: MOD and Home Office
Both the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Home Office are actively developing their AI strategies and looking for opportunities to improve the working environment for staff as well as outcomes for citizens. Both organisations see AI as a tool to free humans up from bureaucracy for better supplier relationships and more ‘show and tell’, more dialogue and more market engagement. Opportunities to collaborate cross-government are actively explored.
Accountability for decisions, however, remains with human beings, not the AI tool - a core principle for both departments.
Is either organisation using AI to fully evaluate bids? An unambiguous “no”.
Is supplier data being used to train models? No – both Home Office and MOD data is carefully siloed, heavily governed and any model used is private.
Ministry of Defence (MOD)
The MOD has seen considerable progress within foundational elements: a digital backbone, policy reviews, and commercial officer training, including ‘how to buy AI’ documentation. Dina Kakaras noted that the MOD prioritises AI use cases that will make the "biggest difference on the ground" and is addressing the struggle to measure AI efficiencies and upskill staff.
As an example, a significant success is a tool for lower-value commercial transactions (under £10 million). This automates contract management plan creation by extracting KPIs and SLAs, reducing an 8-hour task to just 10 minutes on average. Future plans include expanding tooling that is already showing evidence of improved navigation to scan policies and frameworks for easier reference, with potential to scales across government (and we would argue could significantly benefit suppliers as well).
Home Office
Roberto Troiolo explained that the Home Office prioritises solutions based on the balance of public benefits and operational efficiency to manage the inevitable cultural hesitation, factoring in stakeholder readiness, team skills, and risk.
As another organisation that is handling some of the most sensitive data (police and immigration), the advice to teams is to start small, build internal expertise, and establish clear boundaries and strong training to manage risk proactively. Intentionally building internal business cases on the lower-risk initiatives is a pragmatic way to build confidence and internal capability. Human accountability is non-negotiable.
Supplier transparency
A key concern for suppliers in the audience is how the use of AI in bids will be judged by the procurement and evaluation team. There is a risk that perceived punishment for use of AI in any form will result in suppliers not being transparent.
The panel were clear that no one should be punished for using AI as long as they are honest. They discussed how this is similar to the use of an external bid writer – the concern at heart is one of can the supplier deliver what they are committing to, not the fact one resource is used to produce the answer over another.
It was also acknowledged that AI-assisted bids are becoming a noticeable factor. While some suppliers use AI to produce higher-quality, well-structured responses, there is also the recognition that sometimes submissions are easily identifiable as generic and lacking the detail to demonstrate genuine capability. So suppliers may not be penalised for using AI but they will score badly for submitting generic or inaccurate answers because they are fundamentally poor answers.
The path forward
Clear communication is key. Suppliers are strongly encouraged to be transparent about their use of AI in bid creation, provided the content accurately reflects their true capabilities. This practice is guided by adherence to published government guidance, such as the AI Playbook, to build confidence and ensure a level playing field.
Both Roberto and Dina asked suppliers to engage, push back and bring ideas because this is also a cultural journey for us all to go on. “We still have the training wheels on. Come and tell us if something isn’t right.”
The AI promise
Panellists expressed hope that AI will transform the government-supplier relationship by:
- Reducing bureaucracy: automating assurance processes to free human time for strategic collaboration.
- Improving decisions: depersonalising data to provide richer, cross-government insights.
- Streamlining procurement: helping draft core documents like Statements of Work and improving requirement clarity.
- Enriching human interaction: using AI for initial checks, allowing commercial officers to spend more time on higher-value human activities like negotiations, demos and face-to-face evaluation.
The overall consensus is that the integration of AI is a sustained effort, not a quick fix. By establishing careful governance (Home Office) and achieving measurable efficiencies (MOD), the core message is clear: AI must augment human capability, not replace human accountability. This requires fostering transparency from suppliers and promoting realistic expectations from buyers to ultimately free commercial officers for strategic, high-value work.
Charles Bauman
Charles Bauman is a Junior Programme Manager in the Central Government Programme at techUK.
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