HHS wants to use AI to help it 'Buy Smarter' Federal News Network

After a year and a half of development, the Department of Health and Human Services is ready to move its Buy Smarter Initiative into the production phase. Renamed "Reimagined -- Buy Smarter," it uses artificial intelligence to analyze large amounts of data to help with price comparisons and other money saving ideas. "Buy Smarter is an innovative opportunity for HHS to look at our category management, break down some stove pipes, and consolidate our requirements across the department," Lori Ruderman, senior advisor and co-lead for Buy Smarter, said on Federal Monthly Insights -- Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. "We've learned that within HHS, all of our different operational divisions and staff divisions, buy many of the same exact items, but they're buying them on separate contracts, they're duplicating effort, and missing out on tremendous economies of scale." In response, she said the department is leveraging new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics process automation and natural language processing.