Can Automation Help You Ace Your RFP? I Used AI to Find Out

Almost any business, at a certain point, finds itself in need of external expertise. For some industries, the way to find the right partner is obvious — creating and putting a request for proposals (RFP) into the world.

However, these businesses will tell you that it takes them hours upon hours to create each document. Let alone shortlist candidates and select the winning bid. Luckily, as in many other business areas, AI can come to the rescue.

In this article, I look at how you can use automation and AI to speed up your work on RFPs. I paid particular attention to the writing stage and checked how helpful ChatGPT can be in creating a template. Let’s dive in.

What is an RFP?

Using AI to Help Create My RFP.

RFP Automation tools.

Best Practices for RFP Automation.

What is an RFP?

An RFP, short for a request for proposal, is a document businesses and government institutions use to announce a project and find qualified contractors to collaborate with.

RPFs include a detailed project description and vendor requirements. Those who publish an RFP verify the quality of the received proposals and the bidders’ abilities to successfully deliver the project.

One way to make it even simpler? You can use HubSpot’s free, tried-and-tested RFP templates to ensure you’re asking vendors all the right questions.

Using Automation When Writing RPFs

According to Loopio, 44% of organizations already use RFP software to automate repetitive work. With the rise of AI, I believe this number will continue to climb.

RFP automation is about more than just template creation. It can also:

Save time by generating RFP content. If your tool offers generative AI capabilities, you can ask it to create ready-to-use instructions for bidders. Depending on your needs, you can also prompt it to adjust template sections or make layout suggestions.
Boost team collaboration. Automation tools let you share your RFP with others at your company to collect their feedback quickly. Best of all, it automatically merges work from different collaborators to make sure everyone is working on the latest version.
Simplify proposal evaluation. RFP software can organize applications automatically based on your custom labels or information from the document, like industry or company size. This allows you to review and score bids in an organized, more effective manner.

I will review these and other benefits later in this piece. Let’s move on to test out RFP automation.

Using AI to Help Create My RFP.

I hear every day that AI is revolutionary. But, I want to test it out for every use case. In this scenario, I use ChatGPT to create an RFP document. I gave the experiment three attempts.

I made each prompt more detailed than the previous version to see how the output would improve with more information.

Here are the results.