47QPCA26Q0006_RFQ AMD 0001_Questions and Answers_2025-11-10.pdf

Procurement Data Pilot No. Question Government's Answer

1 Please define the precise required functions and expected automated actions of the AI tool (e.g., automated categorization, intake prioritization, required output formats, decision logic).

The AI platform / tool must provide the required functionalities of a unified procurement view, hidden contract detection, duplicate and overlapping spend mapping, non-compliant spend detection, commercial pricing benchmarking, renewal tracking, and custom metrics.

2 Please provide an explicit, mandatory list of existing GSA / FAS systems with which the AI solution must seamlessly integrate (e.g., specifically addressing systems like ASSIST / EASi, financial, or records management platforms).

There are no required integrations. The TTS engineering team will feed the procurement data into the AI platform / tool.

3 What are the specific quantitative metrics and KPIs GSA intends to use to evaluate the solution’s success (e.g., target reduction in procurement cycle time, accuracy threshold for automated tasks)?

This is not a performance-based services acquisition so there are no KPIs at the time of solicitation. TTS is only seeking a three-month software license.

4 Please detail the methodology and testing process that will be employed to assess the AI tool's performance against the defined metrics / KPIs.

This is not a performance-based services acquisition so there are no KPIs at the time of solicitation. TTS is only seeking a three-month software license.

5 We formally request consideration for a one-week extension to the RFQ submission deadline. This additional time would ensure the development and submission of a comprehensive and thoroughly detailed technical and pricing proposal.

The deadline for quotes has been extended to next Monday 11/17/2025 at 12:00pm ET.

6 We respectfully request an extension of the submission deadline from November 12, 2025 to December 5, 2025.

The deadline for quotes has been extended to next Monday 11/17/2025 at 12:00pm ET.

7 Could Government clarify that the threshold for SAT is 250k? The SAT increased from $250,000.00 to $350,000.00 on 10/1/2025 as a result of the FAR Council issuing the final rule for FAR Case 2024-001 updating multiple acquisition-related thresholds to account for inflation.

8 Based on the Government Terms and Conditions (GTC), the underlying intellectual property of the vendor’s base AI models and tools remains with the vendor and is not transferred to GSA. In that case, how would the pilot continue to function after migration to another location without access to the vendor’s base models or AI license?

The procurement data pilot will end after three months.

9 Can the existing license be extended or maintained in the new environment? No, the procurement data pilot will not be extended after three months.

10 Should the quotation for migration services be included within the SAT as part of the initial proposal, or will these services be addressed separately through a new agreement after contract termination?

All pricing quoted must be included under the SAT.

11 We respectfully request a 30-day extension to the current proposal due date. The deadline for quotes has been extended to next Monday 11/17/2025 at 12:00pm ET.

12 Will the Government consider allowing bidders to provide exceptions to the RFQ requirements? For example, there are requirements where a Cloud Solution Provider does not fully meet requirements explicitly as written. Will GSA permit bidders to include these exceptions or assumptions, with explanation, in their proposal for GSA's review and consideration without being non-compliant with the RFQ?

No exceptions to the terms and conditions will be considered.

13 Will GSA accept quotes from vendors with pending ASSIST and VCSS registrations, provided the registrations are completed prior to contract award? Or must registrations be fully approved before the November 12, 2025 quote submission deadline?

Yes, quotes will be accepted from respondents with pending ASSIST and VCSS registrations. Please provide confirmations / screenshots of submitted registrations within the Administrative Information section of the quote.

14 Would the GSA consider a one-week short extension for quote submission? The deadline for quotes has been extended to next Monday 11/17/2025 at 12:00pm ET.

15 Is this a new requirement or a follow-on to a prior project? This is a new requirement.

16 Should quotes be submitted as one combined file or as three separate volumes (Administrative, Technical/Past Performance, and Price)?

Either is acceptable, but three separate volumes would be preferred.

17 For Past Performance:

Are CPARS reports required, or are project summaries and references acceptable?

Can we include projects where we served as a subcontractor?

Project summaries and references are acceptable including those where the respondent was a subcontractor if the quoted AI platform / tool was significantly utilized.

18 The RFQ mentions a written narrative “no more than three pages.” Does this page limit apply to the Technical section alone, or to the Technical and Past Performance sections combined? If combined, would GSA consider allowing a slightly higher page limit to provide a complete response?

The Technical and Past Performance section is a single section that shall be no more than three pages.

19 Could GSA clarify the data sources that will be used during the pilot? The procurement data will come directly from the TTS engineering team.

20 Could GSA please provide more detail on the expected outcomes under the following AI platform functionalities?

Unified procurement view Hidden contract detection Duplicate / overlapping spend mapping Non-compliant spend detection Commercial pricing benchmarking Renewal tracking Custom metrics

The desired outcome is to identify inefficiencies and surface hidden financial exposure in GSA’s contracts.

21 Would the Government be able to provide an example or template for the CSA that is required for this procurement? If an example is not available, any additional guidance on the specific terms and elements the CSA needs to address would be greatly appreciated.

The CSA refers to the end user license agreement of your firm's AI platform / tool. It is the terms and conditions customarily offered to the public by your firm for the AI platform / tool.

22 Can the Government clarify the weighting of technical merit versus past performance, especially for AI-based pilot solutions?

Technical and past performance together make up the single technical evaluation factor. They are not two separate technical evalution factors.

23 How does the Government define “hidden contract detection” in scope? Is the expectation for automated identification only, or are human-verified insights acceptable?

The AI platform / tool should provide automated identification.

24 For non-compliant spend detection, are there existing policies or thresholds we should reference for validation?

Please reference White House memorandum Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending.

25 Are there minimum NIST 800-53 controls required for AI pilots, or should we implement the full standard?

Please implement the full standard.

26 Regarding migration services, what level of historical procurement data access is expected, and in what format?

Multiple years of procurement data in a document file format are expected.

27 Is there a preferred format or level of detail for the CSA submission? It should be submitted in the same format offered to the public for use of your firm's AI platform / tool.

28 Will the Government evaluate AI explainability, lineage, and traceability explicitly as part of “technical merit”?

If these are part of the functionalities of your firm's AI platform / tool, then they should be included in the narrative.

29 Given the limited scope of the 3-month pilot, can GSA confirm whether a full Migration Services Plan is required at this stage, or if a simplified statement of compliance with Attachment 5 is sufficient?

A statement of compliance is sufficient.

30 Can GSA confirm whether this RFQ may result in a single award or if multiple vendors may be selected to participate in the pilot?

Only one award will result from the RFQ.

31 Can GSA confirm whether mobile application functionality is expected or in scope for the Procurement Data Pilot, given the inclusion of mobile application security requirements in Attachment 6?

Mobile application functionality is not expected for the pilot.

32 Is a formal AI Use Disclosure required in the quote, or only post-award? This statement is not required in the quote.

33 Is the platform / tool expected to be ready for deployment at the start of the pilot, or is the 3 months intended for building or configuring the tool?

It is expected that the AI platform / tool be ready for deployment and use at the start of the pilot.

34 Will GSA publish technical responses publicly? Should we mark proprietary sections? No, technical responses will not be published publicly.

35 Will commercial references be accepted for past performance, or is GSA only looking for federal references that have CPARS?

Commercial references may be included as part of the submitted past performance information.

36 How many GSA users are expected to access the platform during the pilot? The exact number is to be determined but TTS, FAS leaders, and the GSA Administrator's suite are all expected to be users.

37 Will the pilot require integration with any GSA systems (e.g., Pegasys, FPDS, SAM.gov)? There are no required integrations. The TTS engineering team will feed the procurement data into the AI platform / tool.

38 Will GSA require dashboards, reports, or visualizations to be built during the pilot? Dashboarding and visualization functionalities should be part of the unified procurement view of the AI platform / tool.

39 Will the pilot include any performance benchmarks or SLAs that must be met? This is not a performance-based services acquisition so there are no SLAs at the time of solicitation. TTS is only seeking a three-month software license.

40 Is FedRAMP Tailored sufficient for this pilot, or is full FedRAMP Low / Moderate / High required? A full FedRAMP desigation is not required; although an agency ATO will be needed post-award.

41 Is PII in the scope of the acquisition, and is it expected to be stored in the vendor’s cloud solution? The procurement data to be analyzed may include PII.

42 Will the data provided by the TTS engineering team be a one-time, static data set, or will it be a regularly updated (live or near real-time) feed?

The TTS engineering team will feed the procurement data more than once. The exact frequency is to be determined.

43 If the data is delivered as a live feed, what is the frequency of updates (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly)? The exact frequency is to be determined.

44 What is the anticipated total volume / size of the data set (e.g., in gigabytes, number of records, or files)?

This information will be provided post-award.

45 Will FAS leadership access the insights through a one-time, static report / presentation or a continuously updated user interface? If continuously updated, how often daily will users run queries?

FAS leaders will access more than once. The exact frequency is to be determined.

46 Will GSA provide historical data to develop or tune models around hidden contracts, duplicate spend, and other AI-driven outputs?

This information will be provided post-award.

47 Will GSA be evaluating solutions on their ability to cover the entire procurement workflow—from ingestion to reporting and migration services—in a unified platform, or is partial fulfillment via multiple point solutions acceptable? Does GSA intend to use the pilot outcome to inform requirements for a broader, integrated procurement management system?

A unified procurement view is required. The impact of the procurement data pilot will be assessed internally after the three months.

48 Could you please clarify whether all personnel (including subcontractors) assigned to this project are required to be U.S. citizens, or if lawful permanent residents with appropriate background investigations are also acceptable?

Lawful permanent residents with appropriate background investigations are also acceptable.

49 Which sources or files will TTS provide (e.g., FPDS, SAM.gov, contract documents), and through what mechanism — bulk file, API, or secure transfer?

TTS will provide procurement data through contract documents and files.

50 What type of procurement data will GSA provide as input? Specifically, will GSA provide the entire RFPs in standard form (.pdf / .docx) as released in SAM.gov, or only the SOW / PWS / SOO text and task-order details?

Complete details from procurement files will be provided.

51 Will complete details of the winning bids be provided? If not, should the platform extract and merge this data from public sources (e.g., FPDS)?

Complete details from procurement files will be provided.

52 Approximately how much data should the platform be able to store and process from these responses?

This information will be provided post-award.

53 Will GSA provide structured contract data directly, or must the platform parse raw documents to extract it?

The AI platform / tool is expected to be able to parse raw documents.

54 Please confirm whether the pilot will run inside a GSA-controlled GovCloud enclave or may be hosted in the respondent's existing GovCloud (US) VPC under a connection agreement.

The AI platform / tool may be hosted in the respondent's environment as TTS is only seeking a license to the AI platform / tool.

55 Will any data supplied be classified as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) or contain PII? The procurement data to be analyzed may include PII and will include CUI.

56 Should user authentication federate to GSA SSO via SAML / SCIM, or will pilot users log in through IdP?

Pilot users can log in separately.

57 Please confirm the working definitions for “non-compliant spend.” Can GSA provide examples of what constitutes non-compliance?

Non-compliant spend is wasteful spending in accordance with the White House memorandum Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending.

58 Similarly, please confirm the definition of a “hidden contract” and provide one or two examples. Hidden contract refers to hidden financial exposure in GSA's contracts. This may be recurring vendor payments without validation of invoices.

59 For “commercial pricing benchmarking,” should variance be calculated solely against GSA CALC data, or may additional commercial catalogs (manufacturer MSRPs, Advantage price lists) be used?

Additional commercial catalogs may be used.

60 For “renewal tracking,” should the feature cover only contract option years, or also subscription-style SaaS renewals?

The feature should cover both.

61 Beyond Section 889 and Category Management, should the platform monitor additional compliance domains (e.g., Buy American, Small Business, Green Purchasing)?

Yes.

62 What documentation format does GSA prefer for “explainability”? There is no preferred format at this time.

63 Please confirm which U.S.-based AI model providers are acceptable under the “American AI only” requirement (e.g., AWS Bedrock, Google Gemini).

Please reference the American AI Act.

64 Does GSA expect bias / safety reports after each model update? No, this is not expected.

65 For 30-day change-control notices, should communication go directly to the CO or through TTS TechAcq?

They should go to the CO.

66 What automated testing or evaluation tools will GSA use for AI system assessments so we can align output formats?

This information will be provided post-award.

67 What KPIs will the Administrator’s suite weigh most when evaluating pilot success (e.g., $ overlap detected, cycle-time saved, renewal-risk coverage, policy violations resolved)?

This is not a performance-based services acquisition so there are no KPIs at the time of solicitation. TTS is only seeking a three-month software license.

68 When does GSA anticipate providing access to procurement data and authorizing cloud deployment (start date of 90-day PoP)?

Access to procurement data will be provided after purchase order kickoff.

69 Which export formats (CSV, JSON, OpenAPI spec, ontology JSON, logs) does GSA prefer for validating the “Migration Services Upon Termination”?

There is no preferred format at this time.

70 Besides the software instance itself, what deliverables does GSA expect at pilot completion (e.g., executive readout, metrics dashboard, bias / safety report, data-export package)?

No other deliverables are expected at this time at the end of pilot completion.

71 Could you specify the key performance indicators (KPIs) or evaluation metrics that will be used to assess the success of the AI platform pilot?

This is not a performance-based services acquisition so there are no KPIs at the time of solicitation. TTS is only seeking a three-month software license.

72 What specific procurement data types and sources will be made available for analysis during the pilot?

Complete details from procurement files will be provided.

73 Will the Government provide access to existing procurement datasets for AI model training and validation, or is the vendor expected to source and prepare data?

The TTS engineering team will provide access after purchase order kickoff.

74 What level of customization is expected for dashboards, reporting, and analytics outputs during the pilot phase?

This information will be provided post-award.

75 Are subcontractors allowed to be engaged in technical development or data processing, and what approval or oversight mechanisms apply?

The prime contractor manages the relationship with the subcontractor.

76 Could the Government clarify which specific section of Attachment 6 (e.g., Internal Information Systems, Cloud Information Systems, LiSaaS Systems) and its associated requirements are applicable to this procurement?

Attachment 6 applies to all IT acquisition efforts at GSA.

77 Could the Government confirm if this entails a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, or if there are other deployment models considered?

TTS is only seeking a three-month software license.

78 Could the Government elaborate on the scope and expected response times for the "limited technical support services" required during the three-month period?

The limited technical support services refer to any technical assistance that may be required in setting up and using the AI platform / tool. A reasonable response time such as one business day is expected.

79 How can the AI platform integrate real-time, geotagged, and crowdsourced data inputs to enrich procurement analysis beyond traditional datasets?

This is not required at this time.

80 Are there expectations or allowances for leveraging behavioral analytics or consumer sentiment data to improve procurement decisions and forecasting?

No.

81 Does the pilot anticipate adaptive, AI-driven scenario simulation or ROI modeling capabilities to guide procurement strategy?

No.

82 Will the platform be required to generate automated, natural-language narrative reports or decision summaries for non-technical stakeholders?

No.

83 How will ongoing AI model retraining and tuning be handled during the pilot to improve accuracy and relevance of insights?

The TTS engineering team will work with the contractor post-award.

84 Are multimodal data sources such as images, videos, or voice inputs relevant for this procurement data pilot? If so, how should processing and integration be addressed?

Multimodal data sources may be applicable and will be addressed post-award.

85 Could the Government provide a clear definition or criteria for what constitutes an "American AI System" for the purpose of this procurement?

Please reference the American AI Act.

86 Are there specific templates or formats the Government prefers for this documentation during the pilot phase?

There is no preferred format at this time.

87 What specific types of AI decisions or outputs from the analysis platform are anticipated to require human review or override in this context?

The TTS engineering team will work with the contractor post-award.

88 How will the Government evaluate the AI system's compliance with these principles during the pilot?

Are there specific metrics or methodologies expected from the vendor to demonstrate adherence?

The TTS engineering team will work with the contractor post-award.

89 Could the Government provide examples of potential "performance issues with unbiased AI principles" or "harmful outputs" that might be relevant to a procurement data analysis AI platform?

A harmful output may be identifying a valid contract invoice as wasteful spending.

90 Could the Government clarify which specific components of the AI platform / tool (e.g., user interface, generated reports, dashboards) are expected to conform to each of the listed E201, E205, E207, E301, E302, 503, and 504 requirements?

The AI platform / tool as a whole should meet Section 508 requirements.

91 What are the expectations for subcontractor involvement, including compliance with data governance and security requirements?

The prime contractor manages the relationship with the subcontractor.

92 Are there specific reporting or documentation requirements vendors must provide on subcontractor activities and deliverables?

No.

93 Is participation by small or disadvantaged businesses as subcontractors encouraged or mandated? No.

94 How will the Government monitor adherence to data privacy and usage guidelines during subcontractor engagements?

The prime contractor manages the relationship with the subcontractor.

95 Could the Government specify which of these controls are considered applicable to "Low" criticality and which to "Moderate" criticality for this pilot, or provide the GSA Control Tailoring Workbook mentioned in Attachment 6, Section 2.2?

These controls have been provided as RFQ Attachment 7.

96 Could the Government clarify the anticipated types and volume of CUI and PII that will be processed by the AI platform / tool during the pilot?

The procurement data to be analyzed may include PII and will include CUI.

97 Could the Government specify the "agreed-upon premises," "designated geographic boundaries," and "approved facilities" where the Government data must be maintained?

Government data must be maintained with the U.S.

98 What specific capabilities or mechanisms is the Government expecting for these configurable controls, particularly for automated detection and user notifications?

The TTS engineering team will work with the contractor post-award.

99 Will the Government provide the necessary access and coordination for the contractor to perform these scans, or will GSA conduct these scans and provide reports to the contractor?

The TTS engineering team will work with the contractor post-award.

100 How will the Government collaborate with the contractor to ensure these timelines are met, especially considering the rapid deployment of a pilot system?

The TTS engineering team will work with the contractor post-award.

101 How will this opt-in / opt-out process be managed during the three-month pilot, and what is the default position if no explicit instruction is provided?

The opt-in / opt-out process will be managed with the TTS engineering team. The default position is opt-out.

102 Could the Government clarify the expected format and level of detail for "models, algorithms, analyses, transformation code" and "code-based pipelining" to ensure interoperability with a new provider?

The procurement data pilot will end after three months, and there will not be a new provider.

103 Could the Government confirm if there are any provisions or allowances for situations where extensive effort is required from the contractor beyond the termination date due to complexities outside the contractor's immediate control (e.g., unexpected data volume, highly specialized data formats for migration)?

This will be handled as needed at the time of purchase order closeout.

104 What is the anticipated process and timeline for reviewing and negotiating changes to the CSA if the contractor is identified as the best-suited vendor?

The CO will negotiate changes to the CSA directly with the best-suited contractor as quickly as possible.

105 What alternative forms of past performance information (e.g., customer testimonials, case studies, references) would be acceptable, and how many are preferred?

There is no minimum / maximum amount of past performance information to be included as part of the Technical and Past Performance section as long as it does not exceed the three-page section limit.