Claims of AI changing the world for the better (and worse!) are abundant. Most commentators are in the AI revolution camp with Marc Benioff, Chairman/CEO and co-founder of Salesforce: “Artificial intelligence and generative AI may be the most important technology of any lifetime.”
The hype is fair but has mixed results on a day-to-day basis. Take the world of proposal generation. The plethora of new AI-backed products hitting the market promise radical efficiencies. (Some products claim to be 10x faster than pre-AI!) A logical next step for management is to limit future expansion in headcount and instead obtain efficiencies in these new AI-backed tools.
Bidding and proposal teams are certainly reaping the benefits of AI efficiencies. For example, Co-Pilot drastically reduces drafting time, comparing and structuring bids, contracts and internal communications by turning complex inputs into clear, consistent outputs.
On the other hand, there are two areas AI has not cracked. The first (possibly temporary) one: getting to grips with new tools takes time, both for the users (bid teams) and the companies perfecting the tools (since they are so new, products are often cumbersome).
The second area is more concerning and will take much more effort to crack.
One of the main pressures on bid teams is liaising with multiple internal and external stakeholders – running meetings, setting deadlines, practicing presentations, and driving governance behaviours. The human interaction element is often underplayed by management in terms of the time bid teams spend ‘herding cats’ and is not yet significantly affected by AI efficiencies.
The answer, as ever, is not binary. Bid teams and management should invest in AI tools and embrace the AI revolution; the benefits are already clear and positive. But AI proposal tools are not a panacea. They will not drastically reduce the time and care required for human interaction across stakeholders – an often overlooked part of the bid managers’ day.
Michael Brown
Michael Brown is a seasoned bid professional having won multiple projects across the built environment throughout Europe, the Middle East, APAC and North America. He is passionate about leading global teams to deliver top quality proposals and pitches to multinational clients.
