Artificial Intelligence Acquisitions: Agencies Should Collect and Apply Lessons Learned to Improve Future Procurements. GAO-26-107859. Federal agencies use AI for facial recognition at airports, analyzing veterans’ benefit claims, and more. They often work with private sector companies to acquire and support AI. We talked with many agency officials about challenges acquiring AI. For example, some said there was difficulty accessing AI technical experts, like data scientists, to evaluate contractor proposals. Officials also said it was hard to understand AI-related costs. But the agencies we spoke with didn’t regularly collect and share lessons learned from acquiring AI. Doing so could help them better prepare for using AI in the future. Our recommendations address this issue.

What GAO Found. Federal agencies reportedly more than doubled their use of artificial intelligence (AI) from 2023 to 2024, and they used a range of approaches to acquire additional AI capabilities through fiscal year 2025. GAO identified trade-offs facing agencies as they acquire AI, and some associated challenges and benefits. For example:

• Agency-directed vs. vendor-driven approaches. Some agencies awarded new contracts in pursuit of AI solutions. In other instances, industry introduced capabilities to agencies in the absence of specific AI requirements.
• Contracts vs. other agreements. Agencies used different types of contracts to acquire AI capabilities. In some instances, agencies also leveraged other agreements not governed by federal acquisition regulations to develop more advanced AI capabilities.
• AI as a service vs. a product. Some agencies bought AI as a product, such as software. However, agency officials told GAO they acquire AI as a service where the vendor provides AI capabilities and outputs on an ongoing basis.

GAO identified several strategic and programmatic challenges agencies faced when acquiring AI capabilities…