Integrating AI into the public service has changed the way the Government of Alberta views digital procurement services, and it expects vendors to adapt.
Speaking today at the Velocity Symposium, Alberta’s technology minister Nate Glubish told attendees that the Province’s growing AI use means that those looking to do business there must adapt to changing technological realities or risk being left out.
“Anybody who’s stuck in the old ways and doesn’t want to change—you’re probably not going to do much work with us anymore.”
Glubish’s comments came amid a wider itinerary of symposium events intended to bring together interested parties from industry, government, and other organizations to learn more about the government’s Velocity White Papers and invite collaboration with the provincial government. The white papers are a series of open source technical documents outlining the methodology Alberta has used to bring AI adoption to its public service over the past 18 months.
Speaking to the crowd of roughly 150 people at Edmonton’s Queen Elizabeth II Building, as well as the more than 600 people who attended virtually, Glubish said the government is finding efficiencies through AI that are dramatically changing how it approaches some contracts.
“We’ve had examples in-house where we’ve built things for 95 percent cheaper and in 95 percent less time,” Glubish said.He added that, in one instance, a government contract’s lowest bid was for $54 million over a three-year period. Using in-house AI alternatives, Glubish claimed the Province was able to meet the contract’s needs for just $2.5 million in less than a year.
“We know that it’s possible. We know that the traditional time and materials billing system is out of date, and not here to stay,” he said. “So our goal through all of this is to say: here’s our roadmap, here’s how we’re doing things, and we invite everyone to join us in that journey.”
When Alberta first released the Velocity Papers earlier this month, the Province referred to them as a roadmap for other governments and organizations to emulate its practices. It has since invited collaboration on improving the processes laid out in the documents. Two weeks ago, Alberta signed a partnership with Quebec designed to share best practices on AI adoption within government.
During his remarks, Glubish told audiences that the changes around automation, productivity and cost savings that AI has brought to the labour landscape mean companies wishing to do business with the provincial government will need to adapt to that changing reality if they want to remain competitive.
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“If you’re going to come and bid to us and say ‘No, we want to bid at 100 percent of what we used to, the way we would’ve done this two years ago,’ well, I know that you’re doing it for far less, and you’re keeping all of that for yourself,” Glubish said. “I don’t want partners like that. I’m not going to do business with partners like that.
“Anybody who’s stuck in the old ways and doesn’t want to change—you’re probably not going to do much work with us anymore,” he added.
Glubish was careful to clarify that he didn’t see the government’s use of AI as an outright replacement for private sector partnerships, but rather that the ministry’s white papers could serve as a guide for what public-private partnerships might look like going forward.
“The white papers show a roadmap on how we’re going to work together,” he said. “AI has changed the way everything is done. We need to adapt. That means we are going to work differently with the private sector, differently from government-to-government, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room to work together.”
*BetaKit *reached out to Minister Glubish’s office, as well as representatives from the provincial government, to ask about which governments and industry organizations attended the symposium but has not yet received a response. BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy the Velocity Symposium.