Contact: Aaron Lambert
805-756-5856; [email protected]

SAN LUIS OBISPO — The Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub), powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), has begun an innovative collaboration with the university’s Strategic Business Services department to revolutionize the procurement process through the application of generative AI technology.

Organizers say the effort can assist other businesses expedite their procurement practices using Generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence used to create new content based on models trained on text, visual and audio data in response to prompts.

Generative AI reuses what it knows to solve new problems.

Cal Poly’s procurement process occasionally struggles with the large volume of requests to purchase a multitude of goods and services that totaled over $190 million in spending during the 2023-24 fiscal year. University procurement specialists are expected to be knowledgeable in many commodity areas, and they often need to expand their knowledge in a very short time frame to develop a clear and comprehensive statement of work (SOW).

To address the issue, the DxHub developed ScopeBuilder, a generative AI tool to enhance scope development and request for proposals (RFPs) to streamline the creation of high-quality SOWs. The development of ScopeBuilder software, led by student Gus Flusser, embodies Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy.

“My experience working for the DxHub and with the Cal Poly procurement office has been invaluable,” said Flusser, a computer engineering senior from Rancho Palos Verdes, California. “I’ve gained so many skills that I will use in both the technical and professional aspects of my career.”

One of the most powerful aspects of ScopeBuilder is its ability to leverage advanced generative AI capabilities to reduce common pain points in the procurement process, such as limited commodity knowledge, vague or unclear work scopes, and lack of clear milestones that can lead to project delays or vendor misunderstandings.

ScopeBuilder can draft scopes in real-time, one section at a time, based on user input and established best practices. As users interact with the system, the software tool dynamically generates content, drawing from a set of examples from relevant past contracts. This ensures that each scope of work is tailored to the specific needs of the procurement, while adhering to established industry practices and automatically formatting the generated content into the proper document structure required by Cal Poly and the entire California State University system.

“We see ScopeBuilder as a valuable item to add to our procurement toolbox. It will help our procurement team be more efficient in developing work scopes for our RFPs and contracts,” said Darin Matthews, chief procurement officer and executive director of Cal Poly’s Strategic Business Services.

The success of this project could have far-reaching implications, serving as a model for other institutions seeking to modernize their procurement practices through the strategic application of AI technologies.

“Scopebuilder is another great example of how the Cal Poly DxHub provides students with real-world experiential learning opportunities,” said Dustin DeBrum, operations director of DxHub. “I’m excited for the impact this will have on procurement services, the public sector, and beyond!”

Visit https://dxhub.calpoly.edu/challenges/using-generative-ai-to-generate-scope-of-work/ to learn more.

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About Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub
The Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub) is a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services and is the world’s first cloud innovation center supported by AWS on a university campus. The primary goal of the DxHub is providing real-world problem-solving experiences to students by immersing them in the application of proven innovation methods in combination with the latest technologies to solve important challenges in the public sector. The DxHub leverages the deep subject matter expertise of government, education and nonprofit organizations to clearly understand customers affected by public sector challenges and develops solutions to meet customer needs. Learn more about DxHub: dxhub.calpoly.edu.