I began my professional career in the 90s, working for an upstart financial information provider. At that time, we were primarily collecting data the “old-fashioned way,” i.e. gathering corporate filings via fax and snail mail, punching important facts contained in the documents into a database that we sold to Wall Street. But new on the scene was something transformative: the public internet. The jury was out on what it meant for my company.
Some theorized that browsers like Yahoo and Google would democratize access to information and make data and analytics providers obsolete. Skipping ahead a few chapters, we now know that the internet raised the floor on information services, while enabling companies with unique data and fit-for-purpose workflows to extend their lead and use advancing technologies to widen their moat.
25+ years later, I’m still in the information services sector and once again find it navigating the implications of a significant technological advancement – only this time it’s different. This time it’s closer to magic than technology. LLMs and Agentic AI are by orders of magnitude the most powerful tools in history, sitting on top of the largest mass of information ever assembled, and everyone with an internet connection has access to them – nearly for free.
I’m mesmerized.
But there’s no time for wonderment!
Information service companies are in an arms race to develop, test, and release the most impactful ways to harness AI and transform the experience for their customers, and the pressure is high.
Just like at the dawn of the internet, this moment in time is Darwinian— and I predict it will favor companies that take the greatest advantage of AI to differentiate themselves. And they will do so by leveraging tools created by the major AI players – in conjunction with their unique and proprietary advantages.
Lucky for me, GovSpend’s unique and proprietary advantage – its data – is exactly why I fell in love with the business. Combined with the deep-seated belief that transparency is good for governments and their citizens, GovSpend’s data serves its customers with powerful insight that helps win business.
Like all companies in this space, we scrape the internet, scanning for relevant public information. While not easy, this is the easy part, especially with ongoing advances in automation.
What makes our data offering exceptional, though, is the tens of thousands of public records requests we execute per week, asking government agencies and schools for POs, contracts, and details on bids and tenders not readily available publicly.
We then assemble that information, normalize it, and index it for search. As a result, we offer the most comprehensive database of public sector buying intelligence on the market.
And now, GovSpend is all-in on AI. But put plainly, this part isn’t all that special. Powerful AI features are quickly becoming table stakes for any SaaS company, and they’re not enough on their own. The public internet is the largest corpus of information in the history of the world. But therein lies the rub – it’s public. Anyone with access to an LLM and a good prompt writer can get to a similar set of insights. Just like in the late 90s, unique data and fit-for-purpose workflows will be the cream that rises to the top.
This is what our customers will see from us as we move into a new era of information services.
Our data will continue to be their edge, but additionally, the deep insights, buying signals and related context, and curated opportunity pipelines will surface with far less effort.
And the ability to take action will be more intuitive.
Today, we are already delivering on this vision with some key AI-powered enhancements that allow customers to quickly interrogate our data and action it. For example, using our pre-written prompts for meeting transcripts, they can quickly see which vendors were discussed in a meeting and understand the sentiment of the discussion.
Using our AI-powered chat, they can draft an introduction to a new contact found in an expired bid.
And coming soon, AI Notebook will enable our customers to surface insights across a large collection of records.
And we’re not stopping there; on the contrary, we are stepping on the gas. Our product and technology teams are laser-focused on delivering an ambitious roadmap that harnesses our greatest strength (our deep proprietary data) and our greatest opportunity (the power of modern AI tools). Imagine your own personal research assistant who knows you, knows your business, knows your industry, and delivers you hand-picked opportunities using a unique combination of data that only GovSpend has access to, all before your first cup of coffee. You won’t have to imagine it for much longer.
AI is a game changer. But the fuel for AI is unique and powerful data. GovSpend has it, and is investing to get more, better, faster. That’s why thousands of participants in the public sector marketplace rely on us daily.
Reach out to find out more on what we’re up to!
About the Author: GovSpend
