AI Assistant for Contracting Officers

Contract disputes can arise due to the way in which an agency solicits offers for a contract, cancels such a solicitation, awards a contract, or cancels a contract. Agencies are expected to resolve a protest quickly once notice is given—meaning that other priorities must be sidelined to handle the protest.  In federal government acquisitions, delays caused by protests can threaten national security, as critical supplies and equipment are delayed. Contracting officers across the USAF and DoD recognize this problem and are eager for a solution. This Phase II project proposes to modify and enhance Mobius Logic’s commercial product, MAKANA, to create an AI assistant to help contracting officers write better solicitations and reduce protests. Our successful Phase I effort, confirmed Mobius Logic’s technical abilities. In Phase II, the AI-tool will be trained on all previously awarded and disputed contracts to identify the clauses triggering dispute action against the contracting office. Having trained on the previous data, the AI tool can then proceed to flag the clauses entered by the contracting officer as either: high-risk, medium-risk, or low-risk. The contracting officer can then address any high- and medium-risk clauses and mitigate the issue before the solicitation goes out. This project will demonstrate the capability and value of the AI-assistant to contracting officers and assess the effort required to integrate this technology with the existing contract management system which will be performed in a follow-on Phase III contract.