Phase III with Florida Institute of Technology

NASA's Shared Services Center has published a sole source Special Notice for Phase III activities with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) related to developing an AI/ML capability prototype for Smart Tailoring of Agency Standards. This procurement is restricted to authorized resellers only and involves upgrading a Smart Query Platform to create a Smart Document Management System. The notice was posted on September 3, 2025, with an extremely tight response deadline of September 5, 2025. The contract will be awarded under FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) as a commercial item procurement with NAICS Code 611310 for educational services. Performance will occur at NASA Headquarters with a period extending through July 31, 2026.

The primary objective is to develop an AI/ML system that will significantly reduce the time required for NASA standards tailoring and adjudication by integrating agency standards into a shared portal using natural language processing and large language models. The system will enable expedited review, search, and identification of standards across NASA's Engineering and Safety & Mission Assurance domains through workflow automation and intelligent query integration via MS Teams and Power BI. Organizations interested in demonstrating their capabilities must submit written responses to the Primary Point of Contact by 8 a.m. Central Standard Time on September 5, 2025, with oral communications not being acceptable. NASA has justified the sole source approach based on Florida Tech's unique expertise in AI/ML applications and their specific knowledge of NASA's complex requirements, which would be difficult and costly to replicate with alternative vendors. The government will evaluate submitted capabilities solely to determine whether to conduct the procurement competitively, though the final determination remains at NASA's discretion.