AI for RFPs: What You Should Know
From tight deadlines to increasing complexity to expanded responsibilities, it’s easy to long for a magical solution to make responding to RFPs easier. With so many new AI options on the market, it can feel like that magic is within reach, but how do you know what’s worth it and what’s not?
Let’s take a look at key things you should know about proposal AI before you invest in any tools.
Define Your Goals
Before you sign up for any AI tool, first determine what exactly you want to achieve. There are many platforms on the market, but every organization has different goals and challenges. What works for one company may not be the best for another.
Here are some common goals when considering AI solutions:
I want to save time reviewing RFPs to see if we're qualified.
One lengthy step in the RFP process is reviewing the RFP to see if it’s even worth responding. Some RFPs are hundreds of pages, and spending a day or two reading through the document only to no-bid is a big time suck for many companies. This is an area where AI can really shine.
Many tools on the market are in the process of creating features that will review and qualify RFPs for you. As of this writing, Anchor AI has the most interesting approach. You establish your specific company criteria up front, and the tool reviews RFPs to summarize the opportunity, identify any potential dealbreakers for you, and share any customer insights.
I want drafting a proposal to be easier.
Going from RFP to first draft can be time consuming and tedious. From shredding the RFP to inserting boilerplate, this is one of the most repetitive steps in the process.
Because it’s so repetitive, this is a perfect opportunity for AI to take some tasks off your to-do list. Platforms like Loopio, Responsive.io, Anchor AI, and more automate tasks like reviewing the RFP to create an outline and writing a first draft.
I want to better understand our competitors.
RFPs are meant to be competitive, and that means you have to know who else is bidding and how they sell if you want to win. AI tools can aid you in competitive research. Start by trying the free versions of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Google Gemini – with each tool you will notice differences in the AI responses and user experience. Envision you are speaking with an industry expert, and ask the difficult questions you are grappling with. Be specific, ask follow up questions, and see if you can discover something new or relevant that could help improve your competitive position.
Referring to the sources provided in the footer of the AI response can also uncover helpful resources you might not have found with traditional search engines.
A word of caution: AI tools can hallucinate by making up facts or metrics and inserting information that is not reputable. Always validate where the AI is getting its information because hallucinations are still very common, and you don’t want to base your competitive strategy on something not grounded in reality.
I want to polish our proposals to avoid embarrassing mistakes.
A Loopio survey found that most companies are using some sort of AI as an editor. Once you’ve drafted the proposal and revised it for buyers, AI can step back in to make sure you don’t have any embarrassing typos or other mistakes that can lower your chance of winning.
Many of the tools listed above have AI editing built into them, but if you don’t need a full RFP tool, you can use editing-specific options, such as Grammarly and Hemingway.
I want to improve my win rate.
The focus of most of the above goals lead back to the major question: how do I win more RFPs?
While AI can claim to help you win RFPs, most of the time it does so by freeing up your time from repetitive tasks to focus on creating a strategy. Some platforms are testing AI for strategy, but remember that AI relies on process and data to make a decision — it creates predictions. If you and your competitors use AI to create a win strategy, all of you will be predictable, which is not only boring, it’s unlikely to win.
Instead, use the above examples to gain back time so you can focus on adding the human element to your proposals, pitches, and sales meetings. Always remember who is on the other side of the proposal. It’s not a robot. It’s a person, often a team of people, who want to work with your company. If they’re going to invest millions of dollars in your solution, they deserve to be treated as the humans they are and receive that personal touch from you. This is how your proposals will stand out from the predictable proposals of your competitors.
In a world where more and more companies are sending out boring, AI-generated content, be the one who speaks to the person who will work with you. That’s how you win more RFPs.
If you need help figuring out how to create that human-focused strategy, check out our resources.
Key Considerations for AI in RFPs
Clean, Accurate Data
Most of the proposal-specific tools rely on your boilerplate to act as a source of truth for any AI-generated drafts. This means that you will need to have clean, accurate, and up-to-date content for the tools to be the most effective.
Data Privacy Concerns
RFPs can often include sensitive data, such as team bios, private financial information, confidential case studies, and proprietary approaches to solutions. When you add your data to some AI tools, they then use this to train their models, and that data may be shared with other users. Most RFP-specific tools are aware of this and do not share data, but always research first to confirm the data standards align with your comfort level and legal requirements.
Writing for Humans
As mentioned above, humans are the ones reviewing and evaluating RFPs. They’re who will decide if you are awarded a contract. RFPs may be designed to be less biased, but it’s in our human nature to make decisions based on our goals, needs, wants, and desires. This means that you should touch on all of these within your proposal and sales pitch. Automating your RFP process can help you save time, but never automate out the human element. That’s how you show that once they sign the contract, they’ll be fully supported by real, everyday people, just like them.
If you need help crafting proposals that resonate with buyers, check out our upcoming trainings, courses, services, and templates. Or reach out, and we can help you determine the best next step for your goals.
