From AI pilot to enterprise scale: IFS’s approach to RFP automation

Generative AI and AI agents have made it relatively easy to automate drafting for RFP responses. Provide some instructions and connect a data source, and you’re off and running. 

For an AI-forward organization like IFS, exploring custom builds is a natural step toward driving operational efficiency. However, scaling a standalone model to meet strict enterprise requirements reveals a distinct shift in scope, moving from simple drafting to a need for comprehensive governance, security, and workflow automation.

As a leading global enterprise software provider specializing in AI-powered ERP, EAM, and Service Management solutions, IFS had the in-house expertise to build a custom GPT for RFPs. In fact, building a custom GPT felt like a logical step. With deep internal AI expertise, the goal was to determine the most scalable and strategic path forward.

This is the story of what happened next.

Insights from an in-house RFP GPT pilot

By late 2024, IFS was at an inflection point. The bid management team, led by Maria Flores, VP of Bid Management at IFS, was expanding globally. RFP volume and complexity were growing, and their existing proposal management system could not keep up.

Meanwhile, the emergence of AI was too alluring to pass up. Internally, leadership’s interest and IT’s curiosity drove momentum. Because the bid management team reported to the CTO, they were an easily identifiable target for AI experimentation.

Enterprise needs revealed by the RFP GPT pilot

IFS built a GPT to draft answers to RFP questions and to explore whether AI could accelerate the process. Initial results were promising, but the GPT wasn’t designed for enterprise-scale governance. 

Responding to RFPs, DDQs, security questionnaires, and ad hoc customer questions requires coordination across teams, validation from subject matter experts (SMEs), structured reviews, and clear ownership of outcomes. It involves knowing what to say, who needs to weigh in, whether the response is complete, and how it aligns to the broader deal strategy. 

Drafting is the starting point, but, to move the business forward, AI also needs to support end-to-end workflows, content governance, and collaboration that occur in parallel to drafting. The pilot that started as a lightweight experiment quickly uncovered the true scope of global bid management at IFS.

Drafting vs. lifecycle management

The pilot proved that while AI excels at initial drafting, high-stakes enterprise RFPs require an interconnected lifecycle, including real-time collaboration with SMEs and committee review workflows.

Data verification & compliance

IFS operates in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing, aerospace, energy, and construction, which require absolute accuracy. The pilot highlighted that a standalone GPT lacked the built-in audit trails and automated verification needed to confidently eliminate compliance risks in security and legal claims.

The reality of maintenance scale

With expanding global bid volumes, maintaining manual Q&A data updates and tracking LLM updates would divert high-value IT resources away from core business objectives.

Recognizing the need for a scalable enterprise AI platform

Based on their experience using the in-house GPT and their evaluation of 10 other RFP and proposal solutions, IFS chose Responsive as a complete, end-to-end Strategic Response Management system. From a practitioner standpoint, several capabilities stood out to Maria, including:

• A governed knowledge base: A single source of truth built from proven, winning responses, kept accurate and up to date with AI and easy-to-build agents.
• Built-in SME collaboration: The ability to get the right experts involved without chasing answers, while keeping content accurate through automated updates.
• End-to-end workflow management: From intake to submission, every step tracked, visible, and controlled so a single team can simultaneously manage exploding volumes of RFXs, security questionnaires, and other customer requests.
• Auditability and compliance: Confidence that every answer was accurate, approved, and defensible through features such as TRACE Score™, a confidence rating provided with every AI answer.
• A platform for continuous improvement: Reporting and analytics that reveal where buyer expectations aren’t being met by existing content, and guide teams on how to strengthen responses to win more deals.
• An ongoing partnership to manage growth: Responsive Professional Services works closely with IFS to fast-track onboarding and stay aligned on data strategy, content structure, and governance.
• Advanced agentic AI capabilities: Pre-built agents answer questionnaires, summarize requirements, execute deal fit analysis, and craft executive summaries. IFS can also easily create their own no-code agents in Agent Studio.

One quick example of the kind of intelligence IFS derives from reporting and analytics…Maria’s team maintains a 90%+ rate of bids advancing to the next stage. But despite that, overall deal win rates were declining. Using Responsive data alongside the team’s expertise, IFS uncovered a critical issue: 35% of deals that progressed beyond the bid stage were going dormant. That insight exposed gaps in sales cycle hygiene and account management, giving IFS a clearer path to build a more accurate, productive pipeline.

Help your IT team understand the value of SRM

IFS’s maturity model from RFP GPT to Responsive mirrors what many teams are going through:

1. Innovation: Identify AI opportunities to accelerate RFPs and bids.
2. Internal proof-of-concept: Build an internal GPT to pressure-test use cases.
3. Strategic evaluation: Define full-scale enterprise workflow and compliance requirements.
4. Platform optimization: Partner with Responsive for end-to-end Strategic Response Management that scales growth securely.

For IFS, the in-house GPT pilot succeeded in validating AI’s potential, uncovering operational requirements, and clarifying what enterprise-scale SRM truly demands. The pilot confirmed that generative AI can accelerate drafting. However, it also revealed that sustainable business impact depends on more than drafting: governed knowledge, trusted workflows, auditability, collaboration, and continuous optimization.

By pairing its own AI leadership and technical expertise with Responsive’s purpose-built SRM platform, IFS positioned itself to scale faster without diverting focus from its core mission of innovating for customers. Rather than replace internal AI capability, IFS extended it by combining their own AI-forward strategy with a platform specifically designed for the complexity of enterprise response management.

As more organizations move from AI experimentation to operational execution, IFS’s experience offers a practical blueprint: build where differentiation matters most, and partner where specialized platforms can accelerate scale, governance, and measurable impact.