![Sun reflecting on tall shining office buildings](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/datasmart/files/actionvance-fic7qz4hnqi-unsplash.jpg?itok=XZxAHA2z) # Collaboration can Enable an Age of AI Innovation February 11, 2025 [ Stephen Goldsmith ](/stephen-goldsmith) [ Betsy Gardner ](/betsy-gardner) *This article originally appeared in Government Technology.* Procurement can power change or stand in its way. The newer and more complex the solution, the more government must change the way it procures. The explosion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents a unique set of challenges, and the jagged edge of GenAI also ripples through to even more jagged procurement obstacles. Municipal officials buying technology face privacy and security challenges compounded by the fact that GenAI derives its power from access to data located across agencies and sectors. Further aggravating this complexity is the asymmetry of expertise between the companies developing AI and the municipalities acquiring their products. Pooling resources will help cities move forward with more confidence and speed. In December we attended the first GovAI Coalition Summit in San Jose, where an expert panel discussed best practices, provided recommendations, and surfaced new ideas for procurement professionals. Here are some key takeaways. ## Pool Resources and Cooperate Kimberly Barnard, senior buyer for technology contracts at the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, emphasized the importance of relying on cooperative purchasing and joint solicitations in order to procure more quickly and with more support. Collaboration, whether a pooled procurement or sharing of terms and conditions or service-level agreements (SLAs), provides critical support in these emerging areas. Kailey Burger Ayogu, managing director at the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School, runs the lab’s Procurement Excellence Network, a free community where professionals connect with peers, receive coaching and share resources. Burger Ayogu reinforced a best practice recently discussed at the CoMotion event in Los Angeles. There, the most innovative cities interrogated multiple vendors before the formal release of an RFP to develop ideas and understanding. Those crafting RFPs and contracts need to find language elastic enough to accommodate change but certain enough to produce a fair competition; broad enough to allow unconventional solutions but narrow enough to moderate risk; and requiring enough data for predictive insights but not so much as to endanger privacy. Panelist Mariel Reed, previously with the San Francisco’s Mayor’s Office and now with the startup Pavilion, pointed to a new GovAI Contract Repository that will help manage these tensions. This repository allows users to see peers’ contracts and reach out to vendors. ## Build Better RFPs Burger Ayogu mentioned GenAI’s potential to help draft RFPs, pull language from previous contracts, and help with scoping. If we think of procurement as an exercise in buying solutions and innovation, then GenAI offers us even more. It offers the ability to support design charrettes where teams across sectors scope out new ways of approaching a problem. And AI can play a part in raising questions or suggesting entirely new ways of responding to a challenge as part of a re-engineering process. ## Improve Community Engagement The power of GenAI should sweep across procurements in many ways. We should also consider how the ability to review unstructured data will inform both community engagement and accountability. For example, an AI tool could review video or photos of contracted services and offer compliance insights much faster than an individual could monitor hours of footage or hundreds of images. It could also examine every SLA and find relevant data, while suggesting a review of SLAs that are not being monitored. During a panel that we moderated, the audience also heard about how AI-generated sentiment analysis is already being used to review satisfaction with city services. Such analysis could also be targeted to remarks about contracted products or services. Emily Royall, senior IT manager for San Antonio, noted that procurement was mentioned in nearly every session at the GovAI Coalition Summit. With discussions about the potential risks of AI, procurement and contracting can set the terms around responsible and ethical use and establish shared criteria for upholding these standards. Ultimately, this incentivizes vendors to adopt ethical practices and encourages transparency with government and end users. ## About the Author ### Betsy Gardner ![Headshot of Betsy Gardner](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_1_1__100x100_scale/public/2025-05/Betsy%20Headshot%20resize.jpg?itok=k2OsSp1g) Betsy Gardner is the editor of Data-Smart City Solutions and the producer of the Data-Smart City Pod. Prior to this, Betsy worked in a variety of roles in higher education, focusing on deconstructing racial and gender inequality through research, writing, and facilitation. She also researched government spending and transparency at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Betsy holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Policy from Northeastern University, a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Boston University, and a graduate certificate in Digital Storytelling from the Harvard Extension School. ## About the Author ### Stephen Goldsmith ![Headshot of Stephen Goldsmith](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_1_1__100x100_scale/public/datasmart/files/goldsmith_headshot_2018.jpg?itok=_stVEJro) Stephen Goldsmith is the Derek Bok Professor of the Practice of Urban Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the director of Data-Smart City Solutions at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University. He previously served as the mayor of Indianapolis and deputy major of New York City. [Read Professor Goldsmith's full bio here](/stephen-goldsmith). See also:- [ Artificial Intelligence ](/topics/artificial-intelligence) - [ Operations ](/topics/operations) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)