Using AI for RFP analysis | Bidding more vs. bidding better

This is a recap of the most valuable ideas we talked about in January 2025.

Below, you'll find:

• A bit about technology and AI in proposals
• An insight for doing better in our profession
• The bidding short video of the month
• The proposals billboard of the month
• The blog post of the month (well, two, actually!)

The Proposals Tech Bit of the Month

I'm starting the year with a 100% actionable series on one of the use cases you cannot keep sleeping on.

That is, using AI for RFP Analysis.

Look, computers can now understand complex documents, which should raise the following question.

How does having a quite smart 24/7 RFP Analyst change the way you approach RFPs?

More than just a question, it's a fundamental mindset shift: approach AI with curiosity, see what it can do, and then ask yourself, “What now?”

Just for inspiration, here are a few ways in which teams are already benefiting.

Bid/No-Bid: Smarter, Faster Decisions.

AI can take on the tedious early-stage work of analyzing an RFP to help you make better decisions:

Spot Red Flags: AI doesn’t just search for keywords—it understands meaning. It can scan hundreds of pages and highlight any technical, legal, or budgetary conflicts with your bid criteria.

Evaluate Risks: Beyond what you could win, is it worth it? AI can assess risks based on your internal best practices and decision frameworks.

Detect Competitor Bias: For industries like government contracting, where bid documents are public, teams use AI to detect when RFPs are written with a competitor in mind.

Compliance & Proposal Management: Automating the Grind

Once you’re in, there’s still a lot of heavy lifting—but it doesn’t all have to be manual. AI can:

Create Compliance Matrices: Break down RFPs into clear, organized requirements with no more copy-pasting into Excel.

Classify and Assign Tasks: Automatically sort RFP requirements into categories and distribute them to your team.

Extract Key Data: Moving details into your CRM or project management tools? AI can handle that too.

Why It Matters

These are just starting points. You can check more ideas here: DeepRFP/Blog.

However, the real value of AI lies in what you can discover. Every team’s process is different, which means the best use cases are still out there, waiting to be found by professionals like you.

So here’s the challenge: Look at your RFP workflow. What’s repetitive, tedious, or just plain annoying?

There’s a good chance AI can handle it—and free you up to focus on what actually matters.

To get super-practical, here's an AI agent that can do custom RFP analysis for you >>

The Proposals Tip of the Month

Let’s talk about a common temptation: bidding more.

As a general rule, that shouldn't be your strategy, but there's an exception, so let's cover that first. I’ve worked with companies that had the capacity and competitive edge to make a “bid more” strategy work for a while.

So, if whatever you sell is so good that you're winning everything you bid for, and you still have free capacity to execute, sure, bidding more is a no-brainer. For most teams, however, this is not the case, and that's what I wanted to talk about today.

A strong bid/no-bid decision process is key to a healthy pipeline. If you start chasing every opportunity, the quality of your bids almost always suffers. And let’s face it—mediocre bids rarely win.

Still, bidding faster (and maybe sneaking in a few extra submissions) is really tempting for upper management and sales VPs. That’s why AI is so appealing to people outside bidding. They just think, "same costs, more revenue."

But here’s the thing we know in bidding and proposals: what you do with the time AI tools save you is what really matters. Investing that extra bandwidth to bid better is the way to win. For example:

• Gather deeper customer insights—who’s making the decisions, what they really want.
• Spend more time crafting win themes that stand out and resonate.
• Collaborate more with SMEs and sales reps to refine your solution and pricing strategies.
• Strengthen your bid/no-bid decisions to focus only on opportunities where you can truly win.

Most proposal pros already know precisely what would make their bids stronger—they’ve just never had the time to do it. That can change now.

Here's a way to start >>

Cheers to bidding better!

By the way, I've pushed the content on my personal site to a new quality level, so if you're into bidding and proposals career posts, check it here: jescartin.com/blog

The Bidding Short Video of the Month

The Proposals Billboard of the Month

The Blog Post of the Month

I usually keep this section to a single post, but I was extra productive in January, so here you go:

• AI in Proposals Basics: 5 Essential Ways to Streamline Your Workflow, discover how AI tools revolutionize proposal writing by automating tasks, improving efficiency, and enabling strategic focus. Unlock time-saving workflows and boost proposal success.
• Comprehensive Salary Insights for Proposal Management and Writing Professionals: Industry Trends, Freelance vs. Salaried, and Global Variations, discover proposal management salary trends, bid writing rates, and proposal writer salary insights. Compare freelance vs. salaried roles.

Thanks!

And this is it for this edition of this newsletter.

To keep updated on what's going on, join 4000+ proposal pros here:

Let's talk proposals and tech! ?? jescartin.com

Besides the valuable insights, tips, and ideas, you'll get access to top proposals stuff such as:

?? Top Jobs in Proposals—fully remote positions with salaries disclosed at companies with excellent ratings—featured in the emails.

?? Exclusive access to The AI in Proposals one-pager—a 5-minute read about the status of artificial intelligence in bidding that I keep up to date.

?? Exclusive access to the GPT use cases in Proposals compilation—the most practical AI uses that proposal pros and businesses can implement today.

?? Exclusive access to DeepRFP trials.