The Army is expanding its use of artificial intelligence in procurement, with the Program Executive Office Enterprise anticipating fiscal year 2026 Small Business Innovation Research awards for two AI-enabled source selection tools, DVIDS reported Wednesday.
The service branch has been working to accelerate its procurement processes. In January, personnel at Army Contracting Command’s contracting centers in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Detroit Arsenal and Rock Island started evaluating AI prototypes under ACC’s Smart Contracting Initiative. One prototype focuses on accelerating the development of Acquisition Requirement Packages, or ARPs — documentation that defines what the government intends to buy and how statutory and regulatory requirements are addressed.
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Why Is the Army Improving the ARP Development Timeline?
Patrick Colleran, director of acquisition management at PEO Enterprise, described ARP development as the most resource-intensive activity during the pre-award phase. The packages can span hundreds of pages and require consistency across evolving technical and regulatory inputs. Errors or inconsistencies can lead to unclear solicitations, prolonged question-and-answer exchanges with industry, and potential protests that delay contract awards.
PEO Enterprise previously used one of the prototypes in fiscal year 2025 to support two supply-type contract awards. The Army is now piloting the tools across a broader mix of acquisitions, including services and non-IT supply categories.
“Our goal is to integrate the tool so that it can fully populate a solicitation within Army Contract Writing System and send the ARP documents directly into the contract file of record,” Colleran said. “Right now, the user has to download files and manually move them over.”
How Does the ARP Prototype Testing Fit Into the Smart Contracting Initiative?
The Smart Contracting Initiative traces back to an August 2025 call for solutions issued by ACC–Aberdeen Proving Ground. The notice highlighted procurement issues, including long award timelines for high-value contracts and a largely manual drafting and review process that can extend beyond a year.
It sought AI-enabled capabilities to automate document preparation, improve compliance and reduce administrative burden across contracting workflows. The ARP prototype testing represents one of the early operational applications of that modernization effort.
The initiative aligns with the Army’s broader experimentation with generative AI in acquisition, including a 2024 pilot program using LIGER, a tool designed by LMI to support acquisition teams through faster information retrieval and AI-generated outputs supported by citations.
