GenAI is everywhere. Not only in discussions at every procurement event, but increasingly as part of any software or service we are using. It feels like new guidance pops up daily around how to leverage GenAI for the public sector, with dozens of resources alone dedicated to supporting public officials with buying GenAI technology.

Yet even with all this material out there, we still hear from our partners that they need help. Procurement officials want to better understand GenAI technology and how procuring GenAI is different, and what they should pay attention to. That’s why we’ve set out to develop actionable, plain language, and vendor-neutral guidance for procurement directors and officials for buying GenAI.

To help us better understand the gap and co-create pieces of the guidance, we recently held two workshops that brought together individuals from the national and state levels, the private sector, nonprofits and academia. These workshops were held in collaboration with the George Washington University Law School Government Procurement Law Program in Washington, DC, and at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.