Civic Marketplace Connectors Bring Local Government Procurement Into Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot

Agencies can search cooperative contracts and send quote requests — and suppliers can respond to them — without leaving the AI assistant they already use.

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--at the National Institute Government Purchasing (“NIGP”)  Forum — Civic Marketplace, the AI procurement platform built for local governments, today at National Institute of Government Purchasing Forum, announced the launch of connectors that bring its contract and supplier data directly into Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot.

A county, city or school buyer can now ask their assistant to find every active cooperative contract, for example, for playground equipment in Ohio, open the pricing sheet attached to it, and send quote requests to five small business certified suppliers without leaving the chat. Those suppliers can review the request and respond the same way.

Civic Marketplace hosts more than 600 best of breed suppliers, headquartered across 42 states and listing more than 9,000 NIGP commodity codes between them. Procurement teams across the country use the platform today, and Civic Marketplace is a proud member of the NIGP Business Council.

What agencies can do

• Search active contracts by keyword, cooperative, supplier, or service category, and pull full details including value, term dates, awarded suppliers, lead entity, and NIGP codes.
• Read and analyze the underlying documents — RFPs, pricing sheets, and MSAs.
• Source suppliers by location, service, or certification, including HUB, WOSB, SDVOSB, DBE, and MBE.
• Submit quote requests, one at a time or in bulk.

What suppliers can do

• Review quote requests and respond with estimates and delivery times, or decline with a reason.
• View open solicitations, register intent to bid, and ask questions.
• Update their profile — services, states served, certifications, capacity, and lead times — and add NIGP codes and catalogs to appear on more quote requests.
• Read and reply to agency messages.

Access is specific to the user

Users sign in with their existing Civic Marketplace account, and the connector operates strictly within the permissions that account already holds: a supplier sees only their own quote requests, and an agency user only what their entity is entitled to. Actions that commit an organization to something — submitting a quote request, responding to a solicitation — require explicit confirmation before they are sent, and every action is recorded in the Civic Marketplace audit trail.

“Our goal is always to make cooperative purchasing easier for both public agencies and suppliers. Giving users access to contract information within the AI tools they already use every day has the potential to improve efficiency and increase engagement,” said Elisa Littrell, Purchasing Agent at the North Central Texas Council of Governments and former Procurement Services Manager at the City of McKinney.

"A school district where one person handles purchasing part-time should have the same buying power as a city with a full procurement department," said Al Hleileh, Co-Founder and CEO of Civic Marketplace. "Every step we remove between a public buyer and a qualified supplier closes that gap a little. Putting Civic Marketplace inside the assistant they already have open removes several at once."

"The connectors bring verified, live Civic Marketplace data into that conversation, so the work happens in one place instead of across four systems."

Availability

The connectors are available today to all Civic Marketplace account holders and are built on the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external systems. There is nothing to download, no code to write, and no API key to manage — users sign in with their Civic Marketplace account to authorize their assistant. Some organizations may require an IT administrator to approve the connector first.

Setup instructions for each assistant can be found at civicmarketplace.com/connect-ai.

About Civic Marketplace

Civic Marketplace is the AI procurement platform built for local governments and free for every SLED entity to use. By removing cost as a barrier, we make it easier for cities, counties, and school districts to modernize how they buy goods and services without adding strain to already tight budgets.

Our platform connects government buyers to a network of pre-approved suppliers, ensuring every contract meets compliance and quality standards from the start. We're especially committed to expanding access for historically underutilized businesses, helping local governments support regional suppliers and strengthen the communities they serve

Learn more at civicmarketplace.com