VA IT official to contractors: Bring your AI game or get axed

The Department of Veterans Affairs only wants contractors who can keep up with its modernization and artificial intelligence efforts, regardless of incumbency or contract length, an IT leader said following an industry day Wednesday.

Zack Schwartz, principal deputy assistant secretary in the VA’s Office of Information and Technology, said he’s made it clear that tech contractors need to bring their “A-game when it comes to supporting the veteran,” and the VA is open for business with whoever can do it best.

“Incumbency is not a guarantee, incumbency is not an advantage,” Schwartz said in an interview with FedScoop. “We will not settle just because you’ve supported the VA in the past.”

Schwartz said Wednesday’s private IT Advanced Planning Brief to Industry was a breakthrough between the agency and industry, as he made it clear that the “massive organization” is “moving extremely fast” to modernize and integrate AI with governance.

“People are seeing how fast we are changing how we contract, how we change our expectations for those contractors and how we hold not only contractors but the federal team accountable to achieve an outcome,” he said.

Contractors with multi-year deals aren’t safe either, Schwartz said, as the VA will be checking in to see how companies are modernizing and using AI moving forward. 

“At all points in the contract, we will review whether or not the contract is performing to what the VA needs because time changes what the VA needs,” he said. “Not necessarily because your performance has gone downhill or is an issue, but it may be because the VA’s requirements have changed from when the contract was initially made. And that’s, again, a massive mindset shift.”

VA’s OIT just completed its second wave of electronic health record modernization earlier this month, Schwartz said in a LinkedIn post. It currently has several contracting opportunities open related to EHRM across the country, many published within the past few weeks.

Schwartz credited new leadership under the “fully engaged” Secretary Doug Collins, whom he said recognizes that tech is the “backbone” of veteran services. The speed at which AI is evolving has prompted this contracting paradigm shift in part, he added — and the department’s speediness is attracting “unbelievable” talent from across agencies to move to the VA.

“AI is becoming an expectation for use of the VA. … We will not be scared of risks associated with AI to our detriment,” Schwartz said. “Our adoption, our focus on it in every procurement and in every action that we take is paramount.”

As the fourth largest spender in the government, the VA has shelled out $177.7 billion so far this fiscal year.

“We are the largest customer for nearly all of our technology vendors, through and through,” Schwartz said. “We are the VIP, not just because of the mission of the veteran, but because of our spending, and it’s about time we start acting like it.”

The VA is also “fully engaged” with the General Services Administration for contracting and is using “nearly all of their vehicles that make sense from an IT standpoint,” he said. 

Industry has responded with some skepticism that the VA will follow through on fast modernization and equal contractor selection, he said, but the VA intends to prove it.

“We are going to show that the message of us moving forward and moving fast has trickled down to every layer of staff within OIT,” Schwartz said. “You’ll clearly be able to see that AI is a part of what the solutioning is in support of VA, and that is a major piece for putting our money where our mouth is.”