RUN LIKE THE (TRADE)WIND


her prior position at Army Contract- ing Command – Rock Island. She said the Tradewind team is now investigating whether AI tools can improve business processes for acquisition professionals. “We’re actually prototyping a couple of software tools. One is going to be an AI-powered contract writing system,” she said. “Tere is no contract writing system today that helps us write non-FAR-based contracts and agreements, so can we lever- age AI—specifically natural language processing and other AI-like technolo- gies, such as generative AI—to make the process faster?”


FEEDBACK FROM THE FIELD What kind of feedback is the marketplace team receiving from partners in indus- try and government? “I get two types of feedback,” Evangelista said. “I mostly get


feedback like, ‘Tis is a really cool and novel approach to the authorities we have. How do I use it?’ Tey already under- stand the value proposition. I’ve already got people asking me, ‘How do I scale this marketplace to SBIR?’ ”—the Small Busi- ness Innovation Research program.


On the other hand, she said she also gets people asking how to do price competi- tion on the marketplace. “Tere is a lack of understanding that price competition is not required on the marketplace,” she said. “You can still do reasonable price deter- minations without a price competition. Tere’s a lot of education and unlearning that has to take place, as we can tell by some of the questions that we get.”


Evangelista said that’s her greatest fear with this marketplace, that the


acquisition workforce may not readily take to something this novel. “We’re so used to competing all of the things in this one solicitation, and it apples to apples in a very compliance-oriented source-selection process, so if you’re given an environment where you just pick a solution and you have to create a business deal, I don’t know if everyone is ready for that. I hope they are, because it’s a really exciting opportu- nity,” she said.


Del Coco echoed Evangelista’s concerns and said he feels the sky is the limit for this new style of marketplace if govern- ment acquisition workers are eager to participate. “We’re very confident in the marketplace, and if we’re right, and it’s readily accepted by the acquisition author- ities, then I think we have a winner on our


LOW BARRIERS TO ENTRY


“If you have a cellphone and a good idea,” then you have everything you need to submit a solution video to the Tradewind Solutions Marketplace, according to the solution evaluation team lead Gene Del Coco. There is no need for expensive equipment or sleek production, as long as the solution stands on its technical merits and the video is clear and understandable. (Photo by George Melton, Pexels)


22


Army AL&T Magazine


Spring 2023


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