The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is planning to set up a new public sector procurement framework for artificial intelligence and automation valued at up to £200 million.
It currently has separate contracts for the two, both of which have been in place since 2020 and are due to expire in March of next year.
The agency has published a future opportunity notice for potential suppliers, saying the framework will consist of five lots for AI consultancy and research, augmented decision making, automation, natural language processing, and imaging and computer vision.
The plan for a single contract reflects the increasing interest in integrating the technologies in the public sector. A CCS blogpost published last year stated that organisations will often benefit most from using a combination of the two.