I wanted to share some thoughts with you on what I’m observing as our bid landscape is increasingly disrupted by AI in both directions on the ground. Procurement teams are increasingly using AI to draft RFx questions, and bid teams are increasingly using it to answer them.

We’re seeing more RFx documents drafted with AI. Questions are unnecessarily complex and don’t themselves demonstrate an understanding of the subject matter. Answering them effectively now takes more analysis, not less, to make sure everything is covered and mapped to evaluation criteria. 

We’re also seeing a move toward RFx documents with text only response requirements in Word and Excel. I believe this is a game changer that we all need to adapt to. Presentation and quality has long been a lever to communicate that we get it, we care, and we’ll be your best partner on the journey ahead.

We now need to ask ourselves:

“How do we differentiate when the evaluation is conducted at least in part by a tool that is analysing pure text, minus the design that conveys your win themes and complex concepts?” 

Another kicker I’ve been thinking about: As procurement teams’ AI help gets better at spotting AI, using AI to draft your response is actually riskier 🙃. Generic, AI flavoured language is exactly what their tool is trained to catch and mark you down on. You now need to answer more clearly and directly than ever – explaining how you meet and exceed criteria and tailoring evidence to the unique success factors of every opportunity for the customer. 

There’s a lot to consider in a rapidly changing environment and I reckon we are all figuring it out together. At Tendup we are iteratively developing our processes to continue to give our clients the best chance of success. A few ways worth highlighting are:  

• A response process centred around content management – we’re using purpose-built Microsoft Office smarts and workflows to efficiently deal with complex responses and avoid copy paste time monster vortexes (my technical term… we’ve all been there 😉). Proposal response platforms aren’t good at the realities of production in our old frenemy Microsoft.  
• Doubling down on response planning – we are spending more time than ever planning responses before putting the proverbial pen to paper. A clear roadmap for the bid team on what we are saying where is critical for bid teams increasingly expected to start with AI as a baseline. When the content plan is clear, prompting for the right content is easier and more effective.  
• Strategic use of attachments – it’s increasingly likely that a human won’t be reading your response until after it’s been triaged or shortlisted, and they’ll be looking at supporting information to help them decide who they can trust to deliver. Make sure your win themes are integrated through the content of your attachments and make sure every piece of supporting information adds value for the reader and makes it easy for them to understand why you. This is now your main opportunity to make a persuasive connection outside the realm of the bots.  

Words and messaging have always mattered in bid land. Right now, they’re doing more heavy lifting than they have in decades in a new paradigm. Feel free to reach out to me directly to discuss your bid challenges in this dynamic landscape. I’d love to hear from you.  

Kat 

Katrina Barter 

Founder + Director, Tendup