From Guidance to Execution: DIR Pilots Full-Service Procurement Support

Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) leaders at TASSCC’s State of the State conference in Austin told vendors to prepare for an environment where AI-driven outcomes, procurement readiness and cybersecurity alignment will shape which solutions get funded and how fast they move.

Among the clearest signals was that artificial intelligence is no longer a novelty; it is quickly becoming a standing item in business cases and legislative hearings.

“Start preparing now for questions that I anticipate we are all going to get as we sit in front of the appropriators,” said Executive Director Amanda Crawford. “They are going to ask us how we are using AI to become more efficient, how we’re using it to do more, to do what we do better, how we’re using it to improve customer experience, customer access in the end.”

Agencies are expected to show how technology improves mission outcomes, not just internal operations. For vendors, that means proposals should come with real use cases, clear metrics and defensible outcomes that hold up under oversight.

Several panelists cautioned that focusing only on automating individual tasks can limit the impact of modernization efforts. Tony Sauerhoff, DIR’s newly appointed chief AI and innovation officer, acknowledged that it is often easy to spot a repetitive task and apply an AI agent to make it more efficient.

“We can configure an AI agent,” he said. “We can do that much more efficiently, much more accurately, save time and money.” But the greater challenge, he added, is shifting how agencies think about the work itself. “More difficult than what we’re going to have to kind of retrain ourselves, and how we think about it, is re-engineering whole business processes in such a way that … we can reimagine how we do things.”

This shift in thinking is particularly important as DIR prepares to support agencies that cannot manage complex procurements on their own. Lisa Massock, the state’s chief procurement officer, described the creation of a “Procurement-as-a-Service” program that will offer hands-on assistance to small agencies with limited procurement staff.

“[The program is] aimed at some of our smaller customers, or smaller agencies that don’t have the resources internally to really do large procurement projects,” she said.

The program is designed to reduce barriers to modernization by helping agencies with scoping, requirements writing, vendor selection and contract execution. Massock said DIR has already hosted listening sessions with small agencies and is actively identifying candidate projects.

The offering is tailored for agencies where a single executive might also be the web administrator or IT lead, with no bandwidth to manage a traditional technology solicitation. In those cases, DIR will help bridge the gap so that modernization projects do not stall due to internal resource constraints. As a result, vendors looking to work with smaller agencies should expect to see DIR at the negotiation table more frequently.

At the same time, DIR encouraged vendors to be proactive about avoiding common procurement delays. Deputy Executive Director Steve Pier explained that some vendors slow down the process by pushing back on contract terms that cannot be changed.

“We all want to get to yes faster on those contracts,” Pier said. “Prepping your legal teams and your companies on our required terms and conditions, things that we could not change even if we wanted to, because they’re required by the constitution or by state law.”

The panel also addressed the ongoing shift in cybersecurity operations, which are moving from DIR to the new Texas Cyber Command. Pier described the change as a major realignment of structure and investment.

“It is an unprecedented and massive commitment of resources to modernizing in a way that allows the state to be prepared for the changing threat landscape that’s coming,” he said. “Our adversaries are more active, more engaged, more sophisticated, and now with AI, more capable.”

Pier noted that cybersecurity funding jumped from less than $60 million per year in general revenue to more than $300 million, and that the command will support intelligence sharing, forensics and assessments in coordination with DIR’s ongoing network modernization efforts.

Vendors with cybersecurity offerings should be prepared to operate in this shared environment, where agency networks, command capabilities and vendor services will need to align under a more integrated security model.