Ask Sage, Inc.

Ask Sage, Inc., a small-business AI software vendor based in McLean, Virginia, operates as a child entity of Bigbear.ai, LLC, and delivers generative AI enterprise software platform subscriptions and custom services to federal defense and civilian agencies exclusively under Total Small Business set-asides, with 98 percent of its recent federal footprint held as prime contractor awards. The vendor's entire strategic posture centers on small-business set-aside competition; all recent delivery orders and IDIQs carry Total Small Business designations.

Ask Sage's core capability is a generative AI enterprise platform sold through annual subscriptions with customized token allocations (inference and training), cloud storage, training, and custom services. The vendor positions the platform for defense acquisition acceleration, cybersecurity assessment automation, financial management, and operational decision support across multiple Department of Defense components. Representative prime work includes a $10.88 million delivery order from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (March 2025) for platform subscriptions and custom services supporting the CIO G6; a $1.633 million Defense Health Agency delivery order (September 2025) for enterprise platform subscriptions; a $1.397 million Air Force delivery order (June 2025) under the Ask Sage Army Decentralized IDIQ; a $1.249 million Air Force Research Laboratory purchase order (June 2025) for generative AI-driven cybersecurity assessments; and a $498 thousand Air Education and Training Command delivery order (September 2025) for a Platform One chatbot for the p1.dso.mil website. Ask Sage also holds SBIR Phase II and Phase III awards, including a $1.798 million STTR Phase II contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (August 2024) for "AI Automated Acquisition Support" and a $1.321 million SBIR Phase III purchase order from the Defense Health Agency (September 2024) for generative AI tokens, software licenses, and case studies.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted to the Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force. The top three customers by combined potential value are the Department of the Army Acquisition Support Center System of Systems Integration Directorate ($201 million), the Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation ($19.2 million), and the Department of the Army Office of the Secretary ($11.5 million); these three account for 95 percent of combined potential value. By award count, the top five customers include the Army Research Development and Engineering Command (eight awards, $1.7 million), Air Combat Command (six awards, $287 thousand), Air Force Research Laboratory (five awards, $3.5 million), Office of Naval Research (four awards, $164 thousand), and Army Office of the Chief of Staff (four awards, $796 thousand). The dominance of the Army Acquisition Support Center reflects the scale of Ask Sage's anchor vehicle: a $200 million Total Small Business SBIR Phase III Single Award Indefinite Delivery Contract awarded by the Army USASC System of Systems Integration Directorate on February 3, 2025, with ultimate completion February 2, 2030. This IDIQ is the sole named parent vehicle in Ask Sage's footprint and has generated approximately 55 task orders valued at $47.7 million in combined potential value since award. Task orders issued against this IDIQ range from $990 to $10.88 million and flow from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Health Agency, Air Combat Command, Air Education and Training Command, Air Force Research Laboratory, Army War College, Army Research Development and Engineering Command, Center for Army Analysis, Training and Doctrine Command, Reserve Command, Tank Automotive and Armaments Command, Army Test and Evaluation Command, Office of Naval Research, Naval Sea Systems Command, Missile Defense Agency, Army Office of the Chief of Staff, and Coast Guard.

Recent activity shows rapid scaling. Ask Sage received three awards in 2023, four in 2024, thirty-four in 2025, and twenty-five in 2026 (through late September); the 2025 volume spike corresponds to establishment of the $200 million IDIQ in February 2025 and the resulting task-order flow. Combined potential value across all sixty-six awards (65 prime, 1 sub) totals $253.5 million, with $32.6 million in combined obligations as of the source date, representing 13 percent realization. Twenty-one awards (combined potential value $6 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and will trigger recompete activity. Ask Sage's sub footprint is minimal — a single May 2024 integration and engineering sub-award to BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc. for ICBM weapon-system work worth Ask Sage 2M tokens and a dedicated instance.

The vendor's category concentration across NAICS is dominated by Computer Systems Design Services (56 awards), with smaller exposure to Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (six awards). PSC concentration splits between National Defense R&D Services Applied Research (24 awards), IT and Telecom Business Application Software (10 awards), Application Development Software (seven awards), and IT Management Tools (six awards). Ask Sage's federal customer base spans 28 distinct agencies, with place-of-performance locations including the vendor's principal site in Bentonville, Virginia, and multiple government installations including Langley Air Force Base, Joint Base Andrews, Fort Leonard Wood, Adelphi, Maryland, Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Division in Norco, California, and Army and Air Force facilities across the continental United States.