IBM Watson helps the US Air Force automate the procurement process

For many years, US government organizations (and many other countries, too) have been trying to set up a process of government procurement. Over time, all new rules and regulations have appeared, and now the Federal Acquisition Regulation document, which is a guide to action for public procurement specialists, has 1,897 pages. It is almost impossible to understand the text, which abounds in special terms: it is necessary not only to study everything carefully, but also to build causal relationships between individual points and the provisions of the manual.

In this regard, it was decided to use the resources of the cognitive system IBM Watson. In this project, the system is called a “decoder”, capable of translating the most complex terms and leadership provisions into ordinary human language with the miscalculation of all intermediate links.

The document is planned not only to be dismantled, but also reworked - the Pentagon is going to reform public procurement, creating a more rational way of acquiring weapons and services. Mark Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, sees upcoming reforms as priorities. In his opinion, the most complicated leadership needs to be thoroughly reworked, making the process of public procurement itself more rational and efficient.
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Due to the different bureaucratic features of the public procurement process, the military more than once and not two exceeded the budget approved by the government, disrupted delivery dates or changed the transaction budget at the last moment. The military has been criticized for these miscalculations, and will be criticized in the future if nothing is changed. Thornberry believes that this problem is so serious that it already constitutes a threat to national security, and this is not only about money or time.

“The technological cycle is now as fast as possible, and it continues to accelerate. If replacing an outdated model of a ship or aircraft with a newer one in the armed forces will still take 20 years, we simply will not be able to defend the country, ”reports Thornberry.

IBM Watson can not only help officials do their jobs more efficiently, but also determine, for example, whether a contract can be awarded on a non-competitive basis. In general, the cognitive system will provide a new level of interaction between business structures and the government. If large companies still somehow cope with the problems of concluding and executing government orders, then for small companies this is a huge problem. Moreover, another important aspect of such transactions is transparency. “We think that cognitive computing can really help make all government interaction processes more transparent,” says Julianna Gallina, head of the government solutions division of IBM Watson.

But first, the cognitive system will have to be taught. The first step is to let the computer read the relevant documentation. Then, people will begin to ask artificial intelligence (the total number of questions is about 5,000) to form an appropriate perception of the system. Experts will help Watson better understand the context and some nuances of the legislation. And only after that the machine will begin to parse the document, which was discussed above.

IBM Watson coped with its previous tasks as efficiently as possible, so here the likelihood of success is high. For example, Watson has helped many companies optimize their business processes. There are a lot of companies, and for an example we will give 8 organizations that have changed for the better thanks to the cognitive system. Among other achievements IBM Watson and more everyday things - for example, help in organizing the regime of the person. Well, you can take this opportunity and simply choose a gift for the holidays using the capabilities of Watson. The military very much hopes that, in the area of ​​public procurement, the Air Force will finally bring order.