Counsel Commentary: GAO Issues Warning Shot on AI Misuse

As with many other companies, government contractors are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to support various aspects of their work, including when drafting bid protests to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). 

Through several recent decisions, however, the GAO has signaled that if it receives a protest with citations to non-existent cases or to cases that did not support the legal positions asserted by the protester, it may dismiss those protests and issue sanctions.

In his monthly Contract Management magazine column, “GAO Issues Warning Shot on AI Misuse,” Rogers Joseph O’Donnell shareholder Stephen L. Bacon covers this increase in AI use, the potential pitfalls and consequences and why contractors must implement rigorous review processes for their protests. 

“The temptation to use AI for protest drafting is understandable, particularly for small businesses facing resource constraints. But contractors will have to weigh whether they are willing to accept the inherent risks associated with using AI to generate protests,” Bacon writes.  

This article was published in the November 2025 issue of Contract Management magazine by the National Contract Management Association (NCMA). Access to the full article in NCMA’s online content library is subject to NCMA’s article access policies.

Read Bacon’s latest Contract Management article here.