The subject of the contract is the provision of services in connection with AI-related systems as well as related services such as training, planning, development and operation, implementation, support and maintenance, as well as the provision of hardware for the operation of the systems, which can include both operationally relevant hardware components (e.g. servers) and own system components (e.g. drones).

LOT-0001
Services related to artificial intelligence.
The ability of the state administration in NRW to act is increasingly threatened by demographic change and the resulting shortage of skilled workers. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to increase productivity and relieve employees as well as to accelerate processes and real improvement through digitization will help to meet this challenge in a targeted manner. In order to continue to do justice to the tasks, a change in the world of work is necessary by exploiting the technical possibilities.
Against the background of an accelerating development of AI technologies, these experiences currently reveal four central needs of the state administration in NRW:
- Advice and knowledge transfer. There are currently uncertainties regarding the general handling of the technologies as well as the legal and organizational framework. In addition, advice is required at the technical level in order to be able to assess the potentials, weaknesses and effectiveness of the use of the respective technology.
- Coordination and bundling. The integration of standard products avoids duplication of developments and incompatibilities. At the same time, the inherently higher risk of failure of AI implementations is distributed in the best possible way and the benefits are sensibly maximized by the resulting reusable products.
- Seamless integration into existing applications. In most cases, AI is not a standalone application, but rather performs specific tasks of a more complex process. The integration of AI into existing processes must be taken into account and planned in an operating infrastructure for AI. This allows the greatest possible benefit for the state administration to be unfolded.
- Maintaining information security. When processing sensitive data, different levels of data protection, BSI baseline protection and the AI Regulation must be built up in a scalable manner. The expectations of data security must be sufficiently considered and feasible solutions must be designed on suitable infrastructures and with traceable data uses.
More and more resources and special requirements are needed to meet the needs, which go beyond the existing resources and existing framework agreements of IT. NRW. Due to the fast pace and the exponentially growing market in the field of data use, automation and AI, very specific technical and technical challenges have to be solved and backed up with the appropriate skills.
The goal of IT. NRW is to use the variety of services and providers in this area within the framework of this tender. In doing so, IT. NRW ensure that they receive the best possible solutions tailored to the specific requirements. To achieve this, the contractor works closely with various providers and ensures IT. NRW to be able to offer a wide range of AI solutions.
The market for AI and data-related services is a fast-growing and increasingly important area. The variety of providers is large and is made up of large, established companies and many young, innovative start-ups. According to the Startup Report 2022 by the digital association Bitkom, 43 percent of German start-ups already rely on AI solutions, while only 11 percent of companies in the economy as a whole do so. This shows that the market for AI solutions is very attractive, especially for young companies, and that these companies potentially have higher skills and expertise in the field of AI than established companies.
In this context, the AI potential of GovTech start-ups in Germany should not be underestimated. Strengthening Germany as a technology location by promoting young companies and cooperating with them could not only accelerate the digitalisation of public administration, but also strengthen Germany's competitiveness in an international comparison.
Within the framework of this call for proposals, IT. NRW has set itself the goal of making the variety of services and providers in the field of AI accessible to its customers and itself. We want to ensure that our customers receive the best possible solutions tailored to their specific requirements.
The areas in which AI offers great added value cannot currently be conclusively named. These include, for example
- Intelligent automation or robotic process automation
- Language technologies such as large language models
- Chatbots and voicebots
- Business Intelligence
- Assistance systems
- Learning models