AI adoption has been gradually increasing over the last few years, becoming more and more popular among both individuals and businesses. According to recent studies, up to 80% of companies and institutions use artificial intelligence for at least one of their processes. The appeal of the technology largely has to do with the fact that it boosts efficiency and productivity, being able to assist in a variety of tasks from research for writing to coding. However, that doesn’t mean that everything is perfect when it comes to AI usage.
In fact, problems have already started to appear in some sectors. One of the areas where people are dealing with quite a few issues is that of small government contractors.
What are the main challenges contractors face?
Each enterprise faces different obstacles in an environment that is rapidly changing. Keeping up with the pace at which AI is developing is no simple task and there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that will fit all requirements. In fact, your hurdles might even be different from those of companies that work in the same niche but in a different city or state. While it’s important to address these specifics, there are a few overarching impediments that impact everyone.
In the case of small contractors, the main issue is the inability to adhere to strict compliance requirements and data security risks. While innovation and having the know-how to use AI is imperative in today’s business environment in order to avoid falling behind competitors, the process of adoption and integration must be done while keeping in mind that the tech shouldn’t hinder regulatory compliance. Failing to ensure CMMC readiness for small contractors carries considerable penalties, ranging from disqualification to losing lucrative government contracts.
Since a contractor’s tarnished reputation has long-term implications it’s better to have a careful approach from the beginning instead of seeking to remedy an unpleasant situation later on. One of the first areas you’ll need to discuss is Generative AI, the tool that is most likely to be used by contractors looking to summarize documents, compare reviews, or draft marketing proposals. Using unauthorized, consumer-grade platforms for these purposes can lead to data spillage though. That is because the platforms also use the information you input to train their own models. Adding CUI to them can therefore lead to massive data breaches.
Then there’s shadow AI, another hidden liability. Feeding intellectual property like custom blueprints into a public model can expose company secrets to competitors or leak financial data. The US is increasingly relying on more stringent clauses when it comes to how data is handled at both the state and national levels. Small contractors can unwittingly breach these terms, leading to massive liabilities and contract terminations. Lastly, professionals have to be mindful of cloud data flows. Since CMMC demands strict CUI traceability it’s likely that the regulations will clash with the cloud’s inherent syncing and use of third-party apps.
Additional noteworthy concerns
AI usage has a reputation for improving efficiency and saving time on extraneous tasks, but that’s only one side of the coin. The truth is that AI is tied to some serious reliability issues since it is, at the end of the day, a tool that relies on external databases to complete its processes. Large language models can produce stark inaccuracies or misleading content, a phenomenon that is referred to a hallucination. The reason for this is that the models are trained from information that can contain biases and contradictions. They are also rewarded for being helpful and generate their content based on the demands, even if they have to make up information.
Having no human oversight and letting AI handle things on its own means that hallucinations are very likely to sneak their way into your documents at some point. The result is inadequate deliverables and bids that are non-compliant with the standards. Small contractors often interact with industries such as healthcare, engineering, energy, and aerospace, all of which operate based on strict regulations to remain safe. Many government agencies are still dealing with legacy IT and disjointed acquisition, placing further strain on the procedures and making it difficult to know how to best align with a client’s needs.
The costs are often an issue in the case of small contractors too. While the larger enterprises navigate the costs with no trouble it’s more difficult for the smaller ones. These contractors might struggle to fund their infrastructure as well as keep up with the training and regular maintenance. In return, that means being unable to deploy secure AI systems and failing to meet the standards, or looking to replace missing areas with customer-grade, public tools which aren’t equipped to create a trustworthy environment.
Building a framework with pragmatic solutions
Small government contractors will benefit from the streamlined processes AI creates, but the framework in which this technology is introduced must be tailored to the needs and demands of the sector. To keep up with CMMC and NIST regulations you’ll need to start by running an asset inventory that allows you to keep track of the data, hardware, and software. Inventories help you carry out audits more efficiently, demonstrate your transparency and accountability (a very important aspect of your good reputation), and give you the insights needed to patch vulnerabilities that could threaten data and CUI.
Check the access controls periodically to make sure that only authorized individuals can access certain systems and verify that nobody ends up having an over-privileged account due to the accumulation of permissions for specific work tasks over several months. Same goes for the approved tools and software used for business, so that everything that’s unvetted is removed, from personal cloud storage to shadow IT. Audits and digital forensics would benefit from a recording system that tracks logging in batches of at least three months to enhance visibility if anomalies occur.
All employees must be trained into a risk-aware culture that covers the warning signs of phishing, the importance of strong passwords and two-factor authentication, and what their specific role is when it comes to the business’s cybersecurity. Your policies must remain concise and accessible even if the tech and regulations themselves are complex. And despite how many precautions you take you must also invest time and expertise into an incident response plan. Data breaches and cybersecurity events are increasingly common and having a step-by-step game plan to outline what everyone should do, which areas should be isolated, and how to manage client reports can save you a lot of time as well as reduce the costs associated with the incident.
conclusion
while AI is definitely a helpful tool it is still crucial for those who use it to do their own research before handing it a lot of information and trusting everything it gives back to them. Small government contractors in particular need to remember that protecting private data needs to remain a priority and should always come first, especially before finishing tasks faster.