{"id":137086,"date":"2026-08-12T09:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/137086\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T09:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:23:41","slug":"onegov-ai-deals-are-ending-but-behavioral-dependency-might-lock-in-federal-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/137086\/","title":{"rendered":"OneGov AI deals are ending, but behavioral dependency might lock in federal workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

With access to cloud and artificial intelligence tools for mere pennies, the General Services Administration\u2019s OneGov<\/a> strategy has saved over a billion dollars for the federal government so far, officials say.<\/p>\n

But three popular deals \u2014 for OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, Google\u2019s Gemini and Anthropic\u2019s Claude \u2014 are expiring next month with no clear plan forward yet in sight, at least publicly. GSA did not respond to multiple requests for comment on renewal plans.<\/p>\n

Touting prices as little as $0.47 to $1 per agency, the barrier to entry to state-of-the-art technology has all but vanished \u2014 by design. Founded in response to a Trump executive order<\/a> for more \u201ccost-effective\u201d solutions in federal contracts, the GSA has said<\/a> OneGov deals accelerate AI adoption across agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May<\/a>, Birgit Smeltzer, director of the GSA\u2019s Office of IT Products, said \u201cmore than 120 orders have been placed against OneGov\u2019s AI offerings,<\/a> and that has provided this new technology, or availability, to about 3.4 million across government.\u201d An OpenAI spokesperson said the company has over 1 million users across federal, state and local governments.<\/p>\n

But with federal employees\u2019 dependence on the tools just beginning, experts worry about what happens come Sept. 30 when the heavy discounts end.<\/p>\n

Behavioral dependency is the real cost<\/p>\n

In a March research paper<\/a> about the OneGov promotional prices<\/a>, government procurement expert Jessica Tillipman said the promotional prices are \u201ca nominal cost that makes the transaction sound exciting and low risk, while the true economics, such as lifecycle costs, operational dependency, and reduced negotiating leverage, arrive later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, one of the real hidden costs behind the deals may be behavioral dependence in an increasingly AI-reliant world. Tillipman, George Washington University\u2019s associate dean for government procurement law studies, said the deals may not generate traditional technical lock-in to a single product, but behavioral lock-in is already here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people just stay with whatever it is because it\u2019s just such a pain to migrate,\u201d she said during a George Mason University webinar<\/a> last week. \u201cRight now, if you told me I had to destroy my Claude account that has my projects in it, I would weep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillipman said in her article: \u201cWhen the promotional period ends, the cost of switching isn\u2019t limited to the price of licensing an alternative platform. It\u2019s the disruption of unwinding months of institutional dependency.\u201d<\/p>\n

And taking it away may lead to the rise of shadow AI; a Thomson Reuters study<\/a> last month found 27% of government professionals report using AI tools their organization had not sanctioned.<\/p>\n

What will renewal look like?<\/p>\n

When it comes to renewing the deals, there is a lot we still don\u2019t know or isn\u2019t public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Google Gemini\u2019s OneGov page<\/a> on Carahsoft, a government IT distributor, says that \u201cat the end of the promotional period, customers must renew at a per user price.\u201d OpenAI\u2019s says<\/a> subscriptions will not automatically renew and pricing is based on the number of users in tiers. Anthropic\u2019s<\/a> offers no renewal sneak peeks, but notes the looming Sept. 30 deadline when access expires.<\/p>\n

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment about its OneGov usership nor its renewal plans, and Google only responded with links<\/a> to Gemini for Government use cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An OpenAI spokesperson said: \u201cThe OneGov program has helped jump-start partnerships across dozens of federal organizations, enabling agencies to better understand how these tools can support their workforces and plan for continued use. It has laid a foundation for secure, responsible AI adoption in critical areas such as cybersecurity, and we continue to work with agencies to expand their use of our tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Barbaccia, the outgoing<\/a> federal chief information officer, told FedScoop in December<\/a> that upon renewal, he expects these vendors to align on pricing by analyzing the usage from the promotional period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be $1. I think it\u2019ll be transparent at least, which is a step in a great direction where they could say, \u2018this is your usage, this is a computed cost, this is the overhead it costs us to run, this is what we\u2019re trying to get out of the deal,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo, at least they\u2019re coming to the table with fact-based pricing that\u2019s transparent to us, which is something I think we\u2019ve missed out on in a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

OneGov is changing government procurement<\/p>\n

The OneGov strategy has saved the government $1.6 billion so far, acting Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Laura Stanton said last week at the George Mason webinar, by unifying purchase agreements and minimizing duplication.<\/p>\n

\u201cFragmented purchasing really limits the government\u2019s buying power, and that\u2019s not just at the pricing level; that means that we can create unnecessary duplication, and we can end up with different terms and conditions,\u201d she said. \u201cWe really don\u2019t have the weight of the federal government coming to bear on these negotiations, and we ultimately end up losing leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Tillipman said the steep discounts have already cost the government its leverage. She pointed to the Federal Acquisition Regulation<\/a>, which warns against below-cost entry pricing as \u201cearly discounts can limit leverage once lock-in and operational dependency set in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leverage agencies have today will not survive renewal,\u201d Tillipman said in the paper. \u201cThis window is the moment to secure terms and build the capacity to walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line is \u201ctechnology procurement has become significantly more complex over the past decade,\u201d and the acquisition model itself is \u201cevolving,\u201d Stanton said at the webinar.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur model for the federal government has been to purchase that commercial technology through an ecosystem of resellers, each negotiating independently with agencies, and that approach at the time served an important purpose,\u201d she said. \u201cBut as technology has become more enterprise-based, and as the government increasingly purchases the same commercial tech platforms across dozens of agencies, we have started to see challenges emerging.\u201d<\/p>\n

One potential consequence of dealing directly with original equipment manufacturers might be bypassing value-added resellers, who purchase software from OEMs and enhance it with certain features or services before reselling it to the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a January request for information<\/a> asking VARs how they add value to government procurement, Stanton said VARs are still needed for implementation, integration, cybersecurity and mission delivery. She asked these resellers for the \u201cwillingness to challenge the long-held assumptions while preserving the strength that\u2019s made this marketplace successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the government continues to modernize its acquisition strategies, the contracting relationships may evolve, but the operational need for the types of services that I\u2019ve itemized from knowledgeable implementation partners continues to be there,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to have your knowledge. We need to have these services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, it\u2019s still pedal down on OneGov, with \u201cmore to come on AI,\u201d Stanton said. For Tillipman, it\u2019s wait and see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do wonder what the landscape looks like four years from now, three years from now, when it comes to some of these things,\u201d Tillipman said. \u201cBecause I jokingly call it, we\u2019re about to enter our \u2018this is why we can\u2019t have nice things\u2019 era.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"K.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by K. Sophie Will
\n\t\t\tK. Sophie Will is a reporter at FedScoop. Previously, she was an investigative data reporter at Bloomberg Industry Group. An award-winning journalist and Utah native, she graduated from Boston University and formerly worked with CQ Roll Call, the Utah Investigative Journalism Project, the Deseret News, USA Today, Reuters, HuffPost, WGBH, and more. Reach her on Signal at ksophiewill.66 or by phone at 617-888-0900.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With access to cloud and artificial intelligence tools for mere pennies, the General Services Administration\u2019s OneGov strategy has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53,111,67863,580,182,27036,4161,55607,2408,28203,67864,37092,132,1430,7341,37514,55610,7339,157,67865,2770,67866],"class_list":["post-137086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-google","tag-anthropic","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-birgit-smeltzer","tag-chatgpt","tag-claude","tag-far","tag-federal-acquisition-regulation","tag-federal-acquisition-service-fas","tag-gemini","tag-general-services-administration-gsa","tag-george-mason-university","tag-george-washington-university","tag-google","tag-google-gemini","tag-government-it-news","tag-jessica-tillipman","tag-laura-stanton","tag-onegov","tag-openai","tag-original-equipment-manufacturers-oems","tag-trump-administration","tag-value-added-resellers-vars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}