Navigating Disruption in the Department of Government Efficiency Era

Recently, Procurement Sciences CEO Christian Ferreira moderated a panel of GovCon industry leaders to discuss impacts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on procurement professionals across the GovCon space. It is almost possible to have missed the transformative and often discombobulating shifts in the federal landscape DOGE has ignited, creating disruption across government agencies and, by extension, the entire government contracting ecosystem.

Agencies are scrambling to:

• Consolidate programs, eliminating redundancies and potentially reducing contract opportunities while increasing the scope and complexity of those that remain
• Rationalize increasingly scrutinized budgets and demonstrate return on investment
• Standardize procurement processes that may render traditional business development methods less effective
• Modernize technology, accelerating digital transformation initiatives and demanding contractors deliver innovations
• Reimagine their workforces, by transforming federal talent management itself as well as the dynamics between contractors and stakeholders.

Judging from webinar attendance, navigating the shifting landscape and ways to successfully forge ahead is top of mind for GovCon professionals. While the panel acknowledged the upheaval has created existential threats, they expressed optimism around the potential transformation of the way government, and in turn federal contractors, do business.

Against this backdrop, the technology landscape continues shifting as well, particularly in response to significant advancements in AI. A January 2025 McKinsey & Company report found that 69% of companies started investing in AI more than a year ago with 92% of them planning to increase their AI investments over the next three years. Fifty-five percent expect these investments will increase 10 percent or more from current levels. Employees are eager for their companies to invest in training so they have the knowledge and skills they need to leverage AI.

In a follow-up, Christian shared a word cloud generated from takeaways expressed by attendees. As someone who was furloughed from my previous job because of foreign aid cuts, alongside many across my network, I have experienced firsthand the rollercoaster of emotions the uncertainty of the last two months has ignited. Looking at the takeaways, however, I was struck by the positive focus on the future attendees, including myself, were left with after listening to the panel. These insights spanned 4Es, Engage, Embrace, Enhance, Emerge, underscoring the imperative for proactive, forward-thinking collaboration in the current climate. Coupled with both an interest and willingness to adopt and invest in AI-powered approaches represents not only a way to survive in the months and years ahead but an opportunity to thrive.

Using these 4Es as an overarching framework, what follows are specific ways AI can be leveraged across the familiar federal procurement lifecycle, from business development to partnership establishment, from capture to proposal submission and evaluation of submission outcomes.

ENGAGE: Building Connections in a Shifting Landscape

As agencies undergo reorganization and reprioritization, contractors are experiencing significant upheaval in their relationships with government stakeholders as decision-makers change roles, priorities shift, and existing relationships may suddenly lose value.

In such a fluid environment, contractors who can quickly identify and engage with emerging stakeholders, understand evolving priorities, and articulate alignment with efficiency initiatives gain decisive advantage. The webinar panelists also highlighted that now is the time for transparent, proactive communication with government clients, teaming partners, and internal teams to ensure alignment. The good news is that AI applications offer tremendous potential to support business development and teaming as the pace of reorganization exceeds human capacity to manually track and respond in real-time and the complexity of stakeholder networks becomes nearly impossible to map without AI.

AI Applications in Business Development & Teaming During DOGE Disruption

EMBRACE: Adapting to DOGE-Driven Change

The momentum with which DOGE’s mandate has swept government can seem unstoppable. With such rapidly merging functions, redefined requirements, or changes in strategic direction with minimal notice, contractors lacking agility will find themselves investing in opportunities that transform or disappear before capture efforts are complete. Those who embrace change through predictive intelligence and scenario planning will capitalize on, rather than fall victim to, such disruptions. AI is an indispensable tool in Capture Management particularly to simulate the impacts of disruptions and recognize patterns in data within compressed decision windows.

AI Applications in Capture Management During DOGE Transformation

ENHANCE: Optimizing Performance for DOGE Requirements

With efficiency right in the name, contractors can expect spillover effects as DOGE’s mandate drives other agencies to demand contractors demonstrate measurable efficiency in their own operations. It should be expected that criteria looking at contractor processes, technologies, and methodologies for evidence they embody the same efficiency principles DOGE expects from agencies will be part of proposal evaluation. Contractors unable to enhance such internal capabilities and communicate them, using quantitative data, effectively will increasingly find themselves noncompetitive.

AI Applications in Proposal Management During Efficiency Mandates

EMERGE: Creating Distinctive Value in the Efficiency Economy

As DOGE drives focus on standardization and consolidation, there is increased risk that contractors begin looking the same unless they proactively differentiate themselves. AI can be instrumental in developing fundamentally new value propositions that, when incorporated into proposals, highlight a company’s ability to deliver efficiency through innovation and not just cost-cutting.

AI Applications in Proposal Development During Efficiency Transformation

To weather and ultimately thrive amidst the DOGE disruption, GovCon businesses will need a targeted focus on implementing AI-powered approaches such as these. This targeted focus should:

• Prioritize systems with capabilities to capture and integrate government spending data, organizational changes, and policy signals
• Ensure capacity to use and maximize the potential of AI is not limited to technical teams but be part of talent development for those in business development and proposal management functions
• Apply AI analytics to corporate operations first to identify and eliminate inefficiencies which can then feed into solutions proposed to government agencies
• Experiment with AI and refine its use to test how different DOGE initiatives might impact business models
• Enhance corporate capabilities to adapt by tracking early indicators of change, brainstorming specific tactical adjustments that can be made in response to changing conditions, and rapidly recalculating optimal resource allocation when priorities shift

At Procurement Sciences, our core mission is to drive innovation and value in the GovCon industry by solving real pain points using AI and ML technologies. Being part of this webinar focused on DOGE is just one recent example of our efforts to achieve this mission. Our Awarded.AI platform and our comprehensive customer experience approach reflects this as well, a culmination of deep understanding of GovCon, past and present, alongside a strong commitment to constant improvement and enhancement as we push boundaries and help our customers do the same. We look forward to continuing to incorporate features and build skills across organizations that can be leveraged on the road to success at this moment, particularly as we all strive to adopt the 4Es.