Government contractors are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to streamline acquisition and proposal development in hopes of improving acquisition rates. However, without a strong foundation and user consent, AI cannot streamline these processes. Sam Cooper, Senior Solutions Engineer at Procurement Sciences AI, discussed the pillars of successful AI integration. Deploying AI at GovCon: A proven strategy webinar that drives buy-in and results GovConWire co-hosted it last week.
Why is GovCon struggling to integrate AI into business development?
Organizations struggle with AI adoption for three main reasons: market saturation, user dissatisfaction, and lack of momentum. GovCon organizations are increasingly demanding AI for proposal writing and now have an endless number of platforms and solutions to choose from. The main problem with these platforms is that many of the platforms they try to specialize in have too limited generation capabilities, limiting their tools to limited workflows and output possibilities. Choosing the right platform means not only thinking about what the technology can offer, but evaluating whether it’s the best fit for your unique organization.
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The most important driver of adoption is momentum. This can help your team maintain steady enthusiasm and buy-in for integrating AI into their daily workflows. User frustration directly inhibits momentum and is the result of getting stuck without proper support, lack of AI education, or trying to change proven processes around tools rather than enhancing the processes that work.
What are the five factors for successful AI implementation?
Mr. Cooper, an expert on AI for procurement, discussed the key drivers of effective AI implementation. The strategy he outlined relies on eliminating “friction.” — Causes of frustration, obstacles and stagnation — We create an environment where we can maintain continued momentum.
The top five drivers for successful implementation are:
Ensure adequate support resources
Failures in AI adoption are often caused by a lack of supporting resources. Addressing user frustration starts with a dedicated, knowledgeable support team, not just a digital chatbox. Cooper said users who are struggling with AI aren’t satisfied with relying on another AI tool. The ability to have a conversation with a human when troubleshooting AI tools can go a long way in accelerating adoption.It’s important not only to demonstrate functionality, but more importantly, to ensure that users don’t run into friction that slows down adoption.
Users need to understand how AI works and how it works to build trust and buy-in. Frustration often stems from confusion, and giving your employees the time and resources to get basic education on AI can help your team adopt it. Users should also understand hallucinations and their causes, as a lack of understanding can raise suspicion if hallucinations occur. Understanding the basics of AI will increase your team’s enthusiasm and keep adoption momentum going.
Build a foundation of trust
With the increasing demand for AI for business development, there are dozens of platforms to choose from. Ensuring that the platforms being used are producing verifiable outcomes is essential to establishing trust that fosters buy-in across the organization. Cooper, who works with GovCon companies on AI adoption every day, shared a key lesson he learned: “User trust in AI is directly related to how transparent the AI tool is.”
AI tools should provide source citations with all output and indicate where each piece of information was obtained. This is not only important for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of AI-created products and allowing teams to have confidence in their work product, but also supports adoption by allowing users to build trust in the tool. Users want to know that they can expect AI to support them and make them more efficient, rather than adding blind fact-checking or additional analysis that slows them down.
The relationship between humans and AI should be optimized and not overlooked. Human guidance and feedback is essential for AI to truly work for an organization and understand its business development strategy, organizational voice, and customer intimacy, but AI still struggles with nuance.
“In the AI era, expertise is more important than ever,” Cooper says. “The way our customers succeed is by telling a great story, building a compelling value proposition, and building a winning proposition. The only difference with AI is that it can do it in less time, and it can run a more thorough process to deliver success with fewer resources.”
Integrate AI into established processes, not replace them
It is important to realize that AI is not a process, but a tool that can streamline established processes. When integrating AI into business development processes, the platform needs to be flexible enough to fit into an organization’s proven processes, rather than expecting users to adapt the tool. The webinar revealed that each organization approaches business development uniquely, using processes that suit their position and team.
It is important for deployment to reduce disruption to the process. Approaching implementation with this mindset will help leaders choose the best platform for their teams and drive adoption in a user-centric manner.
“We want to really reduce friction in people’s daily lives with AI. That’s the goal,” Cooper said. “If you can get people excited, if you can use AI to give them that ‘aha’ moment, they’ll be hooked.”
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Top-down approach: leadership is essential
In some cases, employees may be excited about bringing AI into their daily roles and present use cases to leaders. But as Cooper explains, adoption is more effective when driven by leadership. Setting and communicating clear milestones and expectations for the use of AI within workflows or responsibilities establishes a strong foundation for implementation and ensures users have the guidance they need. Leaders have the opportunity to set a strategy for AI adoption and outline the process, adoption stages, and use with quantifiable goals with accountability to ensure users move forward together.
Start small: crawl, walk, run
When it comes to continually evolving and exciting technologies like AI, it’s understandable that people get excited about integrating all the new features, but too much at once can distract your team from usage goals and become overwhelming. To continue to maintain momentum, it’s important to ensure that users don’t get frustrated or stuck. Cooper described Psci.ai’s “crawl, walk, run” strategy of starting small and winning big.
Psci.ai will start with low-risk products such as customer surveys, summaries, and opportunity qualifications to inform recommendations, but does not yet allow AI to change business content. This allows users to see value early and build trust with small and usable results. The “walk” then involves outputs such as analyzing structured documents, drafting content, and reviewing sections. Finally, your team can “run” with complete confidence in their skills to integrate tools into their workflows at scale.
AI has the potential to transform business development at GovCon, but only if adopted based on trust, transparency, and strong support systems that reduce rather than create friction. Organizations that integrate AI into established processes, invest in user education, and lead adoption from the top down are far more likely to maintain momentum and deliver meaningful results. By starting small, building confidence, and scaling purposefully, Cooper argued that the GovCon team can achieve greater efficiency, a stronger proposition, and a higher win rate.
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