IT Sourcing Event DEQ AI Permitting Pilot

In accordance with North Carolina Session Law 2026-41, Section 12.23, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT), is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to design, develop, and implement innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to improve the efficiency of environmental permitting, compliance, and public engagement processes.

NCDEQ has identified four (4) priority AI Use Cases for implementation that align with agency goals and legislative funding objectives. The proposed Use Cases are expected to improve operational efficiency, reduce processing times, enhance regulatory compliance, and strengthen service delivery to the public.

**Use Case 1 - Permit Application Completeness Check:** Implement an AI-powered permit application completeness review solution that assists applicants while they are preparing and submitting permit applications and supports NCDEQ staff in reviewing submitted applications. [...] By reducing manual screening, rework, and applicant resubmissions while maintaining a human-in-the-loop decision process, the solution will improve permitting efficiency, consistency, application quality, and processing timelines.

**Use Case 2 - Public Comments Summary:** Implement an AI-assisted public comment management solution that ingests and processes comments from multiple formats and channels, including text, handwritten submissions, audio recordings, scanned documents, images, maps, charts, and public hearing transcripts. [...] Human review and approval will remain required for all summaries, responses, and public-facing outputs.

**Use Case 3 - Permit Assistance:** Implement an AI-powered Permit Assistance solution that helps applicants identify the appropriate permits, registrations, notifications, or approvals required for their projects and guides them through the applicable regulatory processes. [...]

**Use Case 4 - Site Permit History Compilation:** Implement an AI-powered Site Permit History Compilation solution that automatically aggregates records from multiple regulatory programs and generates summaries for regulators making planning, permitting, compliance, and other programmatic decisions. [...]

The Vendor must provide a Training Plan for the adoption for all offered Use Cases.

**Contract term:** The term shall be one (1) year, and will expire upon the anniversary date of the effective date unless otherwise stated in the Notice of Award, or unless terminated earlier. The State retains the option to extend the Agreement for O&M of the Pilot program for two (2) optional one (1) year periods at its sole discretion.

**Evaluation:** A trade-off/ranking method of source selection will be utilized in this procurement to allow the State to award this RFP to the Vendor providing the Best Value and recognizing that Best Value may result in award other than the lowest price or highest technically qualified offer.

Offer valid for one hundred twenty (120) days from date of offer opening unless otherwise stated.

NCDEQ intends to make multiple awards under this RFP.

All inquiries regarding the solicitation specifications or requirements must be addressed to the contact person listed on Page One of this solicitation via the Ariba Sourcing Tool’s message board.