By Jatin Modi, founder of Renaissance Group · Published 28 September 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026
How do you prepare past bids so AI can write tender and RFP responses?
Yes, when the library holds the answers and a person reviews every draft. A draft is only as good as the answers it retrieves, so seven checks turn a folder of old bids into a source an AI desk can draw on.
Sort past bids into won, lost and withdrawn, and mark the sections evaluators scored well.
Collect the answers that recur in every questionnaire (insurance, certifications, financial statements, security and references) in one place, with the date each was last checked.
Keep one current version of each datasheet, price list and reference, and retire superseded versions.
Name one approver for each topic, so every drafted section reaches the person who answers for it.
Record which customers have agreed to be named as references and which have not.
Write the house rules a draft must follow: tone, length limits and claims the firm never makes.
List the requirements that no past bid covers, so the team knows where fresh writing is needed.
What do the benchmarks say about where bid time goes?
Loopio's seventh annual RFP Response Trends & Benchmarks Report, drawn from more than 1,500 teams worldwide, puts the average response at 33 hours with 9 contributors, and 79% of teams have used generative AI in the process. Teams respond to 55% of the RFPs they receive, down from 63% a year earlier, and only 13% of teams attribute lost bids to proposal quality (source: Loopio, March 2026). Loopio sells RFP software, so treat the figures as one vendor's survey.
The reading for a buyer: drafting speed is available to every competitor, so the win comes from choosing the right bids and putting the right evidence in them. The checklist therefore puts bid selection and evidence ahead of prose.
When should a team bid, and when should it pass?
Decide before drafting. A go or no-go note earns its place when it gives reasons a bid manager can check against the catalogue and past bids.
Can the firm meet the mandatory requirements today, without new product work?
Did the firm know the buyer before the tender was published?
Who is the incumbent, and what does the firm offer that the incumbent cannot?
How does the evaluation weight price against quality, and can the firm compete on that balance?
Does the deadline leave time for review, given that a typical response draws on nine contributors?
Which answers exist in past bids, and which need fresh writing?
What should you ask any vendor of AI tender and RFP software or services?
| Question | A good answer shows | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Does every drafted answer show where it came from? | A source link per answer, opening the original bid passage. | A reviewer verifies a claim in one step. |
| What happens to a requirement no earlier bid covers? | The draft flags the gap and leaves it for a person to write. | An invented answer to an unfamiliar requirement is the main risk in a submission. |
| Who finishes the price? | A named person on your team. | Pricing carries the firm's commercial liability. |
| How does it handle outdated content? | Dates on library items and a flag on stale ones. | Expired certificates and old references would otherwise reach the buyer. |
| Can it name references that customers have not approved? | A consent flag per customer, enforced in the draft. | Naming a customer without consent damages the relationship. |
| Who sends the response? | Your team, after review. | The signatory is accountable for every statement. |
| Where do your past bids live, and who can see them? | Your SharePoint or Google Drive, under your permissions, with a stated retention rule. | Bids hold pricing and client information. |
| Does the draft export in the buyer's format? | Word, an Excel questionnaire or portal fields. | Rework in the buyer's format erases the time saved. |
How can a buyer test an AI tender tool in one afternoon?
Run a blind test on a closed tender. Take a bid you finished last year, remove its answers from the library, and ask the tool to draft the response from the rest of your past bids. Then score the draft requirement by requirement with four counts.
| Count | How to score it | What a weak result means |
|---|---|---|
| Answered with a correct source | The drafted answer is right and the cited passage supports it. | The retrieval pulls the wrong material. |
| Answered with a wrong or missing source | The text reads well and the cited passage does not support it. | The tool invents; every answer needs a human fact-check. |
| Flagged as a gap | The tool reports that no past bid covers the requirement. | A high count here is honest and shows where fresh writing is needed. |
| Answered with no flag where the library has nothing | Text appears for a requirement you know the library cannot answer. | This is the failure that harms a submission, so treat any occurrence as disqualifying. |
Compare the final bid with the draft to estimate how many hours of the nine-contributor effort the draft would have removed. The blind test costs one afternoon and replaces a vendor demo built on the vendor's own examples.
How does Hastings run the tender desk?
Hastings sells this desk, so read this section as a vendor description. Each day the desk reads public tender portals and the EU tender journal and scores every new notice against what you sell. For tenders you choose, it drafts an answer to every requirement from your past bids and marks the source passage. Your bid team reviews the draft, finishes the price and sends the response.
| Stage | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Inputs | Tender portals and the EU tender journal supply new notices. Your past bids, datasheets, references and price lists supply the answers. | Connected in setup |
| Score | Each notice is scored against your catalogue. A go or no-go note gives the reasons. | Hastings agents |
| Draft | For a tender you choose, every requirement is answered from the closest past material with its source marked. | Hastings agents |
| Human gate | The bid team checks the draft, edits it, finishes the price and sends the response. | Your bid team |
| Output | Go or no-go notes arrive in Teams or Slack. Draft responses arrive in SharePoint or Google Drive. | Delivered daily |
Week one starts with a working session, where Hastings builds a sample on your company from public data. Setup follows. According to the pricing page, Hastings connects your CRM, email, calendar and market sources, builds the knowledge base and configures the first jobs. For this desk the knowledge base holds your past bids, datasheets, references and price lists. The pilot calendar puts connection and build in weeks 1 to 2 and runs the desk against agreed success measures in weeks 3 to 12.
Where does AI tender drafting stop?
A draft covers what your past bids contain. A requirement that no earlier bid addresses has no source, so the bid team writes that answer. The bid team finishes the price, because the number stays with the people who answer for it. The go or no-go note informs the decision and your team chooses which tenders to pursue. A company with a thin bid history gives the desk little to draw on, so the first weeks go to loading references and datasheets.
Once a tender is a go, Proposal first draft builds the commercial proposal from your winning material, and Market and competitor watch shows which competitors are moving on the same buyers. The page on the managed AI operating system explains how these jobs fit together.
Questions buyers ask
Can AI answer tender questionnaires using our past bids?
Yes, when the answers exist in past bids and a person checks each one. The desk matches each question to the closest earlier answers, drafts the response and marks the source passage.
How can a B2B services firm speed up RFP responses with AI?
Prepare the bid library first, pick bids with a go or no-go note, and start every response from your own winning material. The bid team then spends its hours on review, pricing and the points that win the work.
What should a bid team prepare before using AI on tenders?
Sorted past bids, one current version of each datasheet and reference, dated recurring answers, one approver per topic and a list of requirements that no past bid covers.
Who sends the response?
Your bid team reviews, edits and sends every response.
What does it cost to start?
The tender desk runs in every plan, and a 90-day pilot covers two jobs. The pricing page lists the setup fee and monthly fees.
Sources
Loopio, RFP Response Trends & Benchmarks Report (seventh annual), summarized in “Average RFP Win Rates & More: 38 Proposal Statistics to Know in 2026,” 26 March 2026: loopio.com.
Hastings pricing page for setup scope and the pilot calendar.