How Governments Are Buying AI Now: Opportunities, Risks, and Leverage

Governments are adopting AI through enterprise licenses, pilots, embedded features in existing platforms, and heavily subsidized “government offers.” This opening session maps how AI is actually entering public institutions today—and what that means for control, risk, and long-term flexibility. Participants will examine patterns such as deep discounting, centralized purchasing, closed ecosystems, and “shadow AI,” and explore how these dynamics can either lock governments into proprietary platforms or create leverage to demand something better. The session sets the stage for the series by framing procurement and architecture choices as the key battleground for public AI.