AI Helps Businesses Access Government Contracts and Public Auctions
Companies participating in government procurement and public property auctions in the Moscow Region can now receive guidance on projects and bidding opportunities at any time of day. An AI assistant, launched on the Moscow Region Unified Procurement Portal, known as EASUZ, in July, provides round-the-clock answers to users' questions.
The digital assistant can answer more than 5,000 of the most frequently asked questions, understands 180 standard procurement procedures, and recognizes specialized procurement terminology and definitions. Users can ask questions in natural language and receive step-by-step guidance, along with references to the relevant regulations.
Lowering Barriers for Small Businesses
The AI assistant on the EASUZ portal supports procurement procedures governed by Federal Laws No. 44-FZ and No. 223-FZ, as well as regional public auctions. It helps businesses quickly find information about purchasing goods and services, property sales and leases, and prepare applications that meet regulatory requirements. The tool significantly simplifies navigation through a system governed by detailed procurement rules. That broadens access to government contracts for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not maintain in-house legal departments or dedicated procurement specialists. The EASUZ AI Assistant (Unified Procurement Portal AI Assistant) is expected to be in high demand, given that about 65% of procurement in the Moscow Region during 2025 was targeted specifically at SMEs. Greater transparency across the procurement system also promotes fair competition.
From Knowledge Base to Analytics
The AI assistant's knowledge base will continue to expand. Officials from the Moscow Region Committee for Competition Policy expect the quality of the model's responses to improve with every new inquiry, allowing it to evolve quickly into a full-scale digital assistant for procurement participants.
In the future, the system could be trained not only to answer questions but also to analyze procurement documentation independently, explain complex legal requirements in plain language, monitor submission deadlines, and verify whether application packages satisfy formal compliance requirements. A similar approach has already been successfully tested on Moscow's Supplier Portal, where AI algorithms generate concise contract summaries and highlight key contractual terms.
The next stage is likely to expand similar services across multiple Russian regions. Moscow's experience demonstrates strong demand for these solutions: by the end of 2025, the platform served more than 60,000 contracting authorities from 44 regions and nearly 400,000 suppliers.
AI Expands Its Role in Public Procurement
The number of digital services available to businesses, including AI-powered tools, continues to grow each year. In 2022, for example, Moscow's Supplier Portal introduced intelligent catalog search and a bidding bot that automates participation in quotation sessions. In 2024, the platform added a virtual assistant to guide users through registration and product listing creation. By 2025, AI was already analyzing legally significant procurement documents, including contract scope, pricing, and completion deadlines.
That same year, the Federal Antimonopoly Service launched GIS Antikartel (State Information System "Anti-Cartel"). The platform is integrated with databases maintained by Rosstat (Federal State Statistics Service), the Federal Tax Service, the Federal Customs Service, and several government information systems, including the Unified Information System for Procurement and GIS Torgi (State Information System "Public Auctions"). Generative AI models and machine learning technologies analyze massive volumes of data in real time to detect signs of cartel activity. The benefits are twofold. First, stronger government oversight helps public funds be spent more efficiently. Second, the system protects the rights of fair-market suppliers while reinforcing healthy competition.
Businesses Earn, Government Saves
AI tools are expected to play an increasingly important role in interactions between government, citizens, and businesses. "The government, together with the Presidential Commission on Artificial Intelligence Development, interested organizations, and regional leaders, is developing a national plan for the deployment of artificial intelligence technologies," Alexey Dyumin, Secretary of the State Council of the Russian Federation and Presidential Aide, said in June during a meeting of the State Council Commission on the Data Economy initiative.
Russia's IT sector is prepared for the next stage of AI adoption, as demonstrated by solutions that deliver not only digital transformation but also measurable economic benefits. The AI assistant on the Moscow Region's EASUZ portal is one such example. The service reduces the number of technical support requests, frees personnel for higher-value work, makes government procurement more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses, and helps save public funds by strengthening fair competition. Over the next one to two years, the Moscow Region's experience is expected to be expanded to other parts of Russia.
