As a fifty-something I am a self-confessed late adopter when it comes to new technology. To quote Douglas Adams, “Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” What is clear though, even to long-in-the-tooth bid writers like me, is that AI in bid writing is here, and here to stay.
But whilst the core question as to whether AI can ever write bids as well as a human persists (as if?), this isn’t the only debate. An undeniable consequence of AI is the arrival of a new question: Have you used AI software in the completion of your proposal? It’s a question that is becoming increasingly commonplace and has even triggered Procurement Policy Notes dedicated to the issue from the Cabinet Office.
We know AI can make unintentional hallucinations. In 2025, Exdrog, a construction firm, won a road maintenance tender in Poland, but the award was overruled after it was found that the bid’s pricing rationale was based on AI-generated, non-existent and never-issued tax rulings.
So it’s not unreasonable for buyers to seek confirmation that their bids have been fact-checked by a living, breathing human – ignoring, of course, the fact that bids written without AI could include very similar mistakes.
What we don’t know is whether questions about the use of AI result in unconscious evaluator bias. In other words, are evaluators less trusting of proposals which have leveraged AI? There is no empirical data I’m aware of to prove or disprove this. But what we do know is that 36.5% of UK civil servants are, like me, aged over 50. This percentage is greater still amongst Higher/Senior Executive Officers (those ultimately accountable for most public procurements). If these folks abide by the philosophy of Douglas Adams, the chances are that many are sceptical about AI in tenders.
So, if I declare I have leveraged AI, am I unintentionally handicapping my bid, inviting evaluators to unconsciously score me down? AI vendors would say no, pointing to their impressive win rate data. But the truth is that we just don’t know, or at least not yet.
The procurement ecosystem will ultimately be populated by bright young things who have grown up using AI by default. When asked if they have used AI in the completion of their response, they will answer: “Duh, of course, why wouldn’t we?” Indeed, by then the question will likely have been retired, as will all of us oldies who are fretting about it today.
Jim Carley
Jim Carley is the Business Development Director for Shaw Trust, a national charity providing employability, education, and independence support primarily for people with disabilities and limiting health conditions. He was formerly the Founder and Managing Director of Carley Consult, an award-winning bid consultancy, which he subsequently sold, and has over 25 years’ experience in proposal writing and bid management.
