AI | The Wild West – govmates Institute Recap

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The govmates Institute was back in full force with AI: The Wild West taking place on July 23 in Tyson’s Corner.  Hosted by LMI, the event featured AI experts and SMEs from industry including Oliver Sadorra of Dark Wolf Solutions, Sean Doherty of GovDash, Eric Blatt and Brian Detwiler of Scale LLP, and Doug Black of Deep Water Point & Associates.

AI: The Wild West was geared towards demystifying AI for federal contractors, taking a pragmatic approach to artificial intelligence, and determining how it can be applied to daily corporate life to streamline operations, lessen the burden of proposal-writing and – most importantly – support existing customers’ needs to grow additional sources of revenue.

Session 1: AI and Government Use Cases as told by Industry . “If you climb in the saddle, be ready for the ride.”  Our first session covered buying trends in AI as they pertain to the federal government, and how the customer has evolved to purchase products and capabilities vs expertise. As commercial solutions continue to prove value for the federal government, we’re seeing an increasing appetite for AI adoption, both in terms of scope and speed, across DoD and FedCiv customers. Inevitably, this affects a company’s go-to-market strategy depending on the existing customer base and ability to monetize existing relationships. Often education of the government customer is a critical component, with many facing challenges comprehending the benefits and limitations of AI in their office.

Contract vehicles – from OTAs to SBIRs to the Tradewinds marketplace – are all options that can be leveraged to engage the government customer. Most importantly, teaming with other government contractors who have existing vehicles, socio economic set-asides and customers is a great way to quickly get on contract.

Session 2: AI and Acquisition from Industry Perspective “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”  During the second session we discussed incorporating AI into our proposal writing process.  Given the abundance of tools available in the marketplace, often government contractors struggle with determining which option is best for their business.   (Choose a tool that specializes in Federal government contract proposal-writing, to start).  We also discussed maximizing the use of AI in processes, and when to incorporate the human element.  The role of orals in future procurements will definitely prove to be a differentiating factor when selecting winning proposals.

Session 3: Legal Considerations: Protecting IP and more “You can take the boy out of the country…”  In the third session, we discussed all things legal. We discussed the most common legal issues that arise when selling AI to the government. For companies developing the AI tools, protecting the technology and licensing-based business models are top of mind – data rights management, assertions of commerciality, and the content of commercial software licenses to start. Also covered was the reseller/integrator relationship and general legal issues to be concerned with in these arrangements, commercial software license terms that the government is likely to reject, authorization to train machine learning models and AI clauses showing up in government contracts and solicitations.

Session 4: Utilizing AI to Streamline your operations. “Take the bull by the horns”  The final session focused on integrating AI into daily corporate operations, to include contract management, human resources and more. Also of discussion included legal considerations around AI-generated content and data security, transparency and ethics related to government consumption of AI and third-party liability in multiple use case scenarios.

Thank you to LMI and our sponsors for making the event happen. We look forward to the next govmates Institute on Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) in November.