Procurement Trends Report 2025
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6 Procurement Trends to look out for in 2025
Six procurement trends proposals writers, pursuits teams and sales leaders need to know for 2025, with practical advice on how to stay ahead.
Introduction
In this guide, we’ve outlined six trends you need to know about, and set out what you can start doing today to stay ahead.
The change in US government, with a Trump presidency and a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress, looks set to bring some radical policy and regulatory reforms. Many of these changes will have an impact on government contracting and place an increased emphasis on supporting domestic businesses, removing regulations, and aligning procurement to a new policy agenda.
That said, while some areas will undergo major change, others will continue on familiar trajectories. Expect to see an ever-greater focus on cybersecurity, data protection, and the responsible deployment of AI. Demand for data-driven proposals will also continue.
So, while the exact nature of the new government’s policy changes is still to emerge, there are various things you can do now to set your business up for success over the coming years.
In this guide, we’ve picked out six trends that will impact procurement in 2025, and outlined what you can do to stay ahead.
Trend 1
Republican Trifecta
Republican trifecta will see renewed focus on domestic industry,regulatory streamlining, and significant policy shifts
The change of government in early 2025 will have wide-ranging implications for contractors submitting proposals for and delivering public sector programs. The previous Trump administration expanded ‘Buy American’ and ‘Hire American’ requirements.¹ This has continued under the Biden government,² and will likely go even further over the next four years, with Trump and the Republicans promising to limit overseas outsourcing, significantly increase tariffs on foreign goods,³ and cut taxes for businesses that manufacture in the USA.⁴ On the one hand, this should mean more opportunities for US-based companies, particularly in manufacturing. But on the other, contractors reliant on global supply chains will need to reassess their operating models and potentially seek out domestic alternatives to remain compliant and competitive.
Secondly, there’s the much-publicized streamlining of regulations. Where the first Trump presidency saw him pursue a policy of removing two regulations for every one that was introduced, this time he’s promised to go significantly further, adopting a ten-out, one-in aspiration.⁵ Time will tell if the administration achieves this, but even if it doesn’t, attempts to do so will likely lead to sweeping changes.
Expect to see the scrapping of whole policy agendas, or even entire government departments, particularly on matters such as labor rights, environmental protection, and socioeconomic issues. Where procurement has previously sought to further objectives in these areas, such requirements may drop away, and be replaced by a focus on cost-effectiveness and efficiency. For contractors, this could accelerate procurement and reduce (or even eliminate) the need to answer questions on certain topics in proposals. However, it would also increase the spotlight on cost and ROI, squeezing profitability.
Regulation isn’t the only area where government changes will affect suppliers. Policy shifts are expected to significantly alter federal acquisition patterns. There will likely be a notable move away from initiatives focused on environmental protection and renewable energy, with increased investment directed toward defense, oil, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. These shifts may create significant opportunities for contractors aligned with the administration’s priorities. However, contractors whose capabilities are misaligned with these evolving policies will need to pivot strategically to remain competitive in this rapidly shifting landscape.
Another factor contractors need to be aware of is that the overall government efficiency focus will likely see Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) continuing to grow in prominence. This will add further challenges for smaller businesses, particularly those that are reliant on direct awards or set-asides.
Trend 1 – Republican Trifecta
How to Stay Ahead
Develop US-based delivery models
If your business is built around global supply chains, it would be wise to start putting in place domestic alternatives.
Equip your teams with tools that combine online search with generative AI to research potential suppliers and partners and summarize key information.
The ability to answer multiple variants of the same question, using variables, is a particularly powerful time-saver when conducting supplier analysis.
Reach out to suitable businesses, and collect information on them, so that you can respond nimbly to pre-qualification questionnaires and RFPs.
Closely monitor for changes to regulations
Details of how the regulatory landscape will evolve are yet to emerge. Changes may be sudden and significant, requiring fast and fundamental shifts to the way you position your products and services in proposals.
It’s essential that you monitor the situation closely. Check for updates on SAM.gov, Federal Register, Acquisition.gov, and other government procurement websites. Subscribe to alerts from the agencies relevant to your business, and attend events with acquisition teams. Equally importantly, develop relationships with key stakeholders, which can help your teams keep abreast of forthcoming changes.
Develop win themes around new government priorities
As new government policies and priorities are announced, it’s essential that you’re able to tell a powerful and winning story around them.
Ensure your teams have sufficient time to develop these narratives and key statements, which are likely to be different from how you may have positioned your products and services in the past.
Once your messaging around any new or emerging government priorities is approved, make sure it’s available to anyone working on proposals, including through any generative AI-enabled proposal writing software you’re using.
Trend 2
E-Procurement
E-Procurement will expand, withAI-powered evaluation becoming more prominent
Organizations across the public and private sectors are increasingly using e-procurement platforms, such as SAM.gov and commercial tools such as SAP Ariba, Jaggaer, Coupa, and Oracle Procurement Cloud,to streamline elements ofthe procurement of goods and services.
While deep-dive, qualitative proposal analysis will still be done by humans,tools such as those listed above will frequently automate the first pass,to ensure compliance with the core requirements. Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies, such as optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML), are increasingly used to automate this classification and analysis. Non-compliant proposals won’t make it as far as the human assessors, meaning it’s never been more importantto ensure you identify and clearly meet allthe requirements set outin RFP documents.
And with federal agencies, including theGSA⁶ and US Army,⁷ exploring pilot programs to (further) integrate data and AI into various parts of the proposal evaluation process, the importance of proposal compliance will only increase.
This means that as well as becoming proficient with the e-procurement platforms themselves, proposals and pursuits teams must become adept at writing proposals that are easily machine-readable.
Trend 2 – E-Procurement
How to Stay Ahead
Train your teams in e-procurement platforms
It pays to ensure your proposals and pursuits teams are proficient with the main e-procurement platforms that you’ll be using to submit proposals.
SAM.gov is the obvious one to start with if you’re competing for government projects, and there’s a range of publicly available training videos, user guides, and webinars on the Integrated Award Environment (IAE).⁸
Vendors of commercial tools, such as the ones mentioned above, will typically have similar training sections on their websites as a starting point.
Invest in AI-enabled proposal-creation tools
To get through initial rounds of computer-based assessment, it’s essential you fully understand all the compliance requirements and don’t inadvertently miss something that’s hiding in an appendix, for example. Tools that can quickly shred RFP documents to pull out the requirements will be key, firstly to help you create a compliant proposal, and secondly to free up more of your writers’ time to focus on boosting the quality of your responses, giving you a greater chance of winning.
Create machine-readable responses
To optimize your proposals for automated and AI-driven evaluations, structure and readability are both essential.
AI tools often look for keywords, phrases, and section names to match evaluation criteria. Ensure your response aligns with the RFP’s language, headings, numbering, and scoring criteria.
Keep language clear and as jargon-free as possible to help NLP tools process your answers more easily. Where you need to include large amounts of data, present it in tables rather than embedding it in paragraphs of text.
Stick to fonts that will be simple for OCR technology to read – Arial is always a good bet. Keep formatting consistent when it comes to things like heading sizes and weights.
And if you’re including visuals in your proposals, incorporate meaningful alt text and metadata.
Trend 3
Data Security
Cybersecurity and data protection requirements will continue to tighten
The federal focus on cybersecurity will intensify in 2025. We can expect stricter regulations, such as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), to deal with evolving threats and fears. These regulations will place more onus on contractors, both to operate securely, and be able to demonstrate strong security and data protection credentials in their proposals.
Contractors must keep their security practices up-to-date and meet the highest compliance standards. Increased oversight and reporting during project delivery are or will become standard in many sectors, including energy⁹ ¹⁰ and defense.¹¹
All software used in the preparation of proposals needs to meet these standards, and particular attention should be paid to any generative AI tooling being considered. The way these types of systems interact with data means that if the software isn’t fully secure or designed with data protection guardrails, sensitive information could easily be compromised.
Trend 3 – Data Security
How to Stay Ahead
Strengthen your security protocols
To compete successfully for work in highly secure sectors, your own security needs to be in order and aligned to frameworks such as the CMMC.
This includes any software as a service (SaaS) products you’re using for the preparation of proposal documents. Does the vendor offer its product from a truly secure environment? The sensitivity of the information the tools may be handling means you cannot afford to compromise here. The environment should offer the technical controls, and meet the compliance requirements for Department of Defense Impact Level 5 (IL5) – the highest level of security available without being classified as ‘Secret’. This is sometimes referred to as ‘FedRAMP High Equivalent’.
Collaborate with compliant vendors
When selecting any tooling for use in proposal preparation, pick vendors that adhere to robust security and data protection standards.
Whether you’re competing for public or private sector work, the gold security standard to look for in a proposal-support tool an Authority to Operate (ATO), provided by a federal government agency. This demonstrates that the software has been validated by government officers and approved for use in federal systems. Achieving an ATO means the software complies with CMMC 2.0.
Certification to ISO 27001 and SOC 2 are also must-haves for any proposal-support software you procure.
Empower proposal teams to write detailed security responses
Meet ever-greater requirements for detailed security and data protection information in your proposals, without over-burdening your security subject matter experts.
Proposal support software that can intelligently surface relevant security details from past proposals and other organizational information, and then curate this into answers aligned to the RFP’s requirements, will enable your proposal team to produce goodquality first-draft answers. These can then be reviewed and refined by your security specialists, thereby making optimal use of their time.
And with security in mind, when using tools that incorporate generative AI, make sure your data is not being used to train or finetune the underlying large language models.
Trend 4
Cost Efficiency
Government efficiency drive will increase focus on cost
While inflation continues to fall from its 2022 peak,¹² federal agencies will remain price-sensitive throughout 2025. However, that doesn’t mean the contract will always be awarded to the lowest-price bidder.
Lowest-price technically acceptable (LPTA) models have had stricter criteria placed around their use in recent years.¹³ ¹⁴ This has shifted focus more towards best-value contracts, where other factors, such as quality, past performance, and innovation, are taken into account as well. However, with the incoming administration having made various statements around government efficiency and restructuring,¹⁵ there will likely be procurement policy changes, which could include revisiting of the use of LPTA.
For now, contractors competing for government work must strike a balance between competitive pricing, and demonstrating value in a variety of ways, including return on investment (ROI) and alignment with client needs, to put themselves in a strong position to win. As mentioned above, they should also keep tabs on policy announcements around contract award criteria and closely monitor the scoring in any RFP they’re responding to, so as to ensure their proposals are focusing on the right areas.
Trend 4 – Cost Efficiency
How to Stay Ahead
Sharpen your focus on price
Your commercial proposal will form a significant part of buyers’ decisions and is likely to grow in importance over the coming years.
If it isn’t already, then thorough cost and ROI analysis needs to become an integral part of your solution design process. This will help you price as competitively as possible while maintaining profitability.
Combine this with innovative technical and commercial approaches that help cut costs while preserving quality and performance.
…But don’t forget quality, innovation, and technical expertise
With assessors looking for value, make sure your proposal clearly demonstrates how your solution will deliver against the criteria the RFP has set out. How will you ensure quality? What innovation will you bring to the contract? How does your technical expertise stand out? And how will all of this support the government’s wider agenda?
Strengthen your proposal by ensuring you quantify long-term value add beyond initial costs. Factors such as efficiency gains, cost savings, and quality improvements, will help you tell a compelling story, particularly where there’s a higher upfront price tag.
Prominently reference past performance
A powerful way to back up claims in your proposal is to showcase real-world examples, both related to your own organization and your competitors. Make sure your organization is collecting data and documenting outcomes on live projects, so that you can use this as proof of past performance in your proposals (more on this below).
Collect data on your competitors’ performance in similar contracts using publicly available information, such as the Government Accountability Office’s Bid Protests decisions.¹⁶
Look for tools that can search through project performance reports (both internal and publicly available), proposals, and other sources of information, and then help highlight your strengths and competitors’ weaknesses. Better still is software capable of aligning these findings with the questions posed in the RFP you’re responding to.
Trend 5
Data-driven Proposals
Data-driven proposals will be required to demonstrate expected ROI, performance, and benefits
As we’ve covered so far, tomorrow’s proposals are going to need to be competitively priced, and able to showcase customer value in a number of ways. Vague or unsubstantiated claims aren’t going to cut it any more. Pursuits teams will need to offer detail.
All of this means having a deep understanding of factors such as expected project costs, timelines, resourcing, and risk. Some will already be embedding a data-driven approach into their solution design process, while others will need to augment what they’re doing with new data and predictive analytics tools to be able to provide the precision required for future proposals. Insights from these platforms will enable proposal teams to tell compelling stories around expected benefits, while solution architects will be able to price more accurately.
This is likely to mean embedding analytics tooling into various parts of your solution delivery process, from design through to ongoing operation. Teams will need appropriate data literacy, to be able to leverage the available data and use it to tell compelling stories in your proposals.
Trend 5 – Data-driven Proposals
How to Stay Ahead
Embed analytics tooling into your service design and delivery processes
Those creating your solutions will require access to suitable analytics tooling that can support accurate forecasting of project plans, risks, and outcomes.
If you’ve already invested in data tooling elsewhere in your business, it makes sense to extend this. Make sure you embed data-collection and reporting tools into every part of your project lifecycles, and make the insights available internally for use in future proposals to support more accurate planning and forecasting.
Upskill your proposals and product/service design teams in analytics and modeling
Embedding a more data-driven approach to the way you design solutions and produce proposals will likely mean upskilling your proposals and presales teams.
Solution architects and designers will need to be able to use the tools to model and predict how their solutions will perform, and how this will impact project and organizational KPIs.
Proposal writers and managers will need to become confident at interpreting forecasts and other data and layering them into your proposals. Larger organizations may opt to have a dedicated data analyst on their proposal team for this purpose.
Back everything up with data
It should become standard practice to back up any performance or benefit claim in a proposal using data.
If your solution promises to save the client money, quantify this, and provide the underlying numbers to substantiate it, should an assessor wish to validate your claim.
This means ensuring your proposal writers have access to tools that can easily surface relevant data. This could be from project forecasts, past performance reports, or historical proposals.
Trend 6
Parallel Proposal Development
A continued shift away from traditional proposal development methodology
Since 2022, there has been an increase in the number of global businesses transitioning from linear, sequential proposal development methodologies of the 1970s to agile methodologies like Parallel Proposal Development. This trend will continue throughout 2025.
Unlike traditional, sequential proposal development processes that were developed in the 1970s, Parallel Proposal Development involves working on multiple aspects of a proposal simultaneously rather than in a strict order. This methodology allows teams to be more responsive to changes, gather continuous feedback, and adapt their proposals in real-time.
Parallel Proposal Development is significantly enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptability of business development processes. It is a modern approach to creating business proposals that borrows concepts from agile and lean methodologies, which are commonly used in software development and manufacturing.
This approach not only aligns better with the dynamic business environments businesses find themselves in, but also offers strategic advantages in customer engagement, risk management, and market responsiveness.
Trend 6 – Parallel Proposal Development
Here’s Why:
Flexibility and Adaptability
Traditional 1970s methodologies follow a rigid, sequential process where each stage has to be completed before moving on to the next. This linear approach makes it difficult to adapt to changes once the process is underway. In contrast, Parallel Proposal Development allows for modifications at various stages of the process. Teams can adapt their strategies and proposals based on real-time customer data and feedback without needing to restart or significantly backtrack, thereby increasing the relevance and potential success of the proposal.
Continuous Improvement
Sequential methodologies typically lack mechanisms for continuous refinement once a stage is completed. Feedback often comes too late in the process to be effectively integrated. Parallel Proposal Development incorporates continuous feedback loops, allowing for real-time adjustments. This ongoing refinement process not only enhances the quality of the proposal but also ensures that the final product is highly optimized and aligned with current market demands.
Faster Response Times
In the 1970s methodologies, the completion of one phase is required before another can begin. This significantly lengthens the response time to market changes. Agile-inspired parallel development operates under an iterative cycle that allows different phases to overlap and proceed concurrently. This not only speeds up the overall process but also enables organizations to respond more swiftly to opportunities and threats, providing a competitive edge in fast-paced markets.
Summary
Set yourself up for success through 2025 by investing in your proposal teams now
2025 looks set to bring with it significant changes – and challenges – for contractors competing for and delivering government work. While we can expect opportunities in areas such as cybersecurity and defense, others, such as environmental and renewable energy, will likely face cutbacks.
Exactly how all of the incoming administration’s aspirations will play out is still to emerge. But whatever transpires, the two essential requirements for contractors will be flexibility and efficiency.
Keep up to date with policy and regulatory shifts, and be ready to adapt your business and positioning in response to changes in agencies, their leadership, and their priorities.
At the same time, it will pay to ensure your own operations are as streamlined as possible. Make sure your proposal teams have the tools that will help them produce winning proposals in the face of evolving requirements. Software that can shred RFPs to pick out and summarize new requirements coming from the government, will aid your understanding of how to position your products and services in a compelling and compliant way. Layer data and analytics into your solution design and delivery processes, and ensure your proposal teams are adept at weaving these insights and forecasts into your proposals.
Support writers with AutogenAI to allow them to securely access proprietary data and produce proposal content that aligns it to these evolving requirements.
All of this – and the other advice set out in this guide – will help you accelerate the production of winning proposals, while gifting your writers and subject matter experts more time to focus on refining the solution and how you position it.
As we head into 2025, and all that it will bring, now is the time to be investing in the team that will play a central role in determining your success.
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