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“Are we allowed AI torespond to tenders?” one of my clients recently asked me.
I must admit that until now I’ve not really thought myself much impacted by AI. It is the worry of teachers grading papers of students using ChatGPT in assignments or companies deploying marketing and customer service chatbots, but AI in public procurement? Surely not!
I cringe at “business cults” driven by wild-eyed people with job titles like ‘evangelizer’ ‘hero’ or ‘something-ninja’ and so I’ve read news about AI with a sceptical eye, but I’m also a realist and know that we are living in a globalised economy where any little competitive advantage is worth exploring.
I’ve always advised my clients that it is best to present a genuine response in public tenders to be fairly considered. After all, if your response to a request for a public service is structured by a soulless algorithm, does it represent your company at all or your special capability to execute a public contract? Do we even want a public tender system where the most AI-literate sales teams are the ones who win all the tenders?
Perhaps prophetically, this week I was participating in a panel discussion hosted by the European Institute for Public Administration in Maastricht titled “‘Can procurement drive public sector artificial intelligence adoption?” I asked the question to Professor Albert Sanchez-Graells (Professor of Economic Law at Bristol University and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Law and Innovation) and Dr Aris Gerogopolous (Head of Innovation, AI, Strategic and Defense Procurement Research Unit and Professor of European and Public Law at University of Nottingham) and was surprised at their responses. They suggested that using AI in public tender responses could be considered a competitive equaliser, they said definitively that there are no rules in place yet one way or the other and they predicted that the private sector would very likely move faster than the public sector in the use of AI in any case well before the public sector can effectively regulate it.
It seems that the rise of AI in public procurement selection is inevitable, so if we accept that then we realise that our role in it is perhaps more about how we can deploy it meaningfully and ethically without losing the value of the tools we use for scoring and selecting the best offers.
For my own work I’ve thought of some ways we might do that and here is what I've come up with.
TIPS FORCONTRACITNG AUTHORITIES
More Negotiated Procedures
One way we might temper AI use a bit is by using less Open and Restricted procedures and relying more on our negotiated procedures. Having the ability to use face-to-face sessions to meet the people who will do the work puts some of the humanity into the process for balance. In the same way you would insist on meeting the person repaving your driveway, you might expect to meet someone who is rebuilding a core business intelligence service.
Limit Responses
Rather than writing or reading ten pages of text as a response to an IT onboarding and takeover plan,for example, ask tenderers to limit their responses to three pages. Shorter response limits make it more likely that tenderers will review responses in detail to make sure they limit fluff and change nonsense. Direct communication forces people to make everything they say correct. Still, you will want to make sure that your limitations still respect the principle of proportionality; limiting responses on a half-billion euro tender is not the same as limiting responses on a half-million euro tender.
Use AI Yourself
Perhaps the best way to learn about how AI responses in public tenders work is to already use it yourself. You can’t look for something you aren’t familiar with and you might find value in summarising some of the complexities in your own tender with it in a meaningful and ethical way or using some of the AI presentation tools to improve the presentation of your call for competition.
TIPS FOR ECONOMIC OPERATORS
Make Responses Personal
Don’t lose the unique voice that you bring to the table. If you use Chat AI to describe industry-wide processes that you might deploy as a response to qualitative criteria, make sure that your response includes your personal experiences in using that methodology. Remember that Contracting Authorities don’t want an instruction manual, they want the confidence that a partner understands and uses the tools that will bring success to their project.
Review, Review, Review
I never advise a client to have one person reviewing a tender. Just like several people with several perspectives will be evaluating responses, several people should review and give feedback before a response is sent. Don’t review everything just once on the last day, review it several times over a few days and allow several chances for feedback and edit. Make sure your use of chat AI doesn’t cause problems with people who share a different perspective you might not have considered.
Be Honest
Don’t hide the fact that you use AI. It is the reality of our world today and in many ways the use of AI is an action to be judged on its own merits. If you are asked about it, answer honestly. Share tips and make it better for everyone. Help create an open environment where we can all agree on how the standard is to be used in the open so that it doesn’t become something scary to use in secret.
Have you got tips ofyour own? Feel free to share them. If we can agree that the use of AI in public tendering can be done responsibly, then we all benefit from the same guidelines on how best to use it.
So now when clients ask at Procurement Europe if they can use Chat AI in tender responses, we'll answer honestly that they can and send them a few tips of our own and whatever you might add to the picture.
Beau Burriola is an EU public sector professional running EU public tenders and finding new ways to get small companies more involved in EU public tender opportunities. beau@procurementeurope.com
