UK Government AI Playbook for Procurement

The AI Playbook for the UK Government provides practical guidance for safe, effective and secure AI use across government, including selection, procurement and deployment. Buyers can use it to shape evidence requirements throughout the procurement lifecycle.

Start with the intended outcome

Define the business problem, intended users, affected people, role of AI and what must remain under human control. Procurement should not begin with a preferred model or supplier before those facts are clear.

Governance and accountability

Establish ownership for the use case, risk, data, security and operational decisions. Ask suppliers for evidence showing how their own governance applies to the named product.

Data and information management

Map data classes, sources, processing locations, retention, model/provider access and training or improvement use. Require enough evidence for the buyer to make its own data-protection and information-risk decisions.

Security and resilience

Apply normal cyber-security due diligence alongside AI-specific concerns, including model and supply-chain dependencies, access, logging, incident handling, secure deployment and ongoing monitoring.

Commercial and supplier evidence

Separate marketing claims from evidence. Record the exact supplier and product scope, material dependencies, customer evidence, test results, known limitations and unresolved gaps.

Human oversight and responsible use

Specify where people review, approve, challenge or escalate AI outputs and how users will understand limitations. Oversight should be operationally realistic rather than nominal.

Lifecycle management

Procurement controls should continue after award. Define change notifications, evidence refresh, monitoring, incident routes, reassessment triggers and exit requirements.

How to use the Playbook in procurement

Use the Playbook as a source of buyer considerations, then translate those considerations into proportionate requirements and evidence requests for the actual use case. Do not treat a supplier statement of 'Playbook alignment' as certification or government endorsement.

How AI TrustMark fits

AI TrustMark can independently verify supplier and product evidence and map checked evidence to relevant buyer requirements. It does not create government approval, framework admission or contract award.

Organisation-specific Playbook crosswalks, tender questions, evaluation matrices, evidence packs and assurance remain professional services.

Return to the AI Procurement Framework Crosswalks or the AI Procurement Knowledge Base.