"I couldn’t do my job the way I do right now without Responsive AI. If you don’t have Responsive AI enabled, you’re definitely missing out on content and wasting a lot of time."
Roger Bedore
RFP Team Lead at Perceptyx
The gist
Perceptyx transformed its RFP and vendor security questionnaire (VSQ) process with Responsive AI, completing first-draft responses in just 30 minutes while dramatically reducing reliance on subject matter experts (SMEs). By centralizing content and automating responses with Responsive AI agents, the four-person RFP team now handles 75 RFPs and 150 VSQs annually — without adding headcount.
Salespeople, solution consultants, and customer success managers also rely on Responsive Ask — a conversational AI tool — for fast, accurate, self-service answers to prospect and customer questions, freeing SMEs from repetitive requests. Responsive AI not only protects valuable SME time but also empowers Perceptyx to scale operations, improve proposal quality, and accelerate growth, all while delivering a consistent, on-brand experience across every response.
The rundown
Perceptyx’s response challenge
- Perceptyx’s RFP process was inefficient, relying on a manual Q&A pair database. Proposal managers copied and pasted answers and lobbed the remaining questions to SMEs — who were inundated with repetitive requests via email and Slack.
- SMEs were frustrated and disengaged, losing valuable time from their primary responsibilities.
- Leadership prioritized centralizing RFP processes and content on a single platform to increase efficiency, improve proposal quality, and reduce SME fatigue.
- InfoSec struggled to keep up with the rising volume of VSQs, lacking a tool for effectively answering VSQs in online portals.
Impact and results
- 30-minute RFP drafts: With Responsive AI agents, the Perceptyx RFP Team creates comprehensive drafts in under 30 minutes, ready for SME review.
- 90% VSQ completion by RFP Team: The team can now independently answer 90% of a security questionnaire before it reaches InfoSec, dramatically reducing their workload.
- Expanded capacity without headcount: Perceptyx handles 75 RFPs and 150 VSQs per year without adding new team members.
- SMEs shielded: The RFP Team can answer questions and draft proposals using Responsive, eliminating the need for salespeople and proposal managers to constantly interrupt SMEs with repetitive questions. SME time is reserved only for reviewing final drafts, freeing them up to focus on their primary duties.
- Field users are AI-amplified: Sales, solution consultants, and customer success managers use Responsive Ask to get fast, accurate, on-brand answers for one-off prospect and customer questions — freeing the RFP Team and SMEs for more strategic work.
Using AI to maximize productivity at a small company
Percepytx provides software that helps organizations connect employee experience data to business outcomes. As the company scaled, its RFP and InfoSec teams faced surging demand. Roger Bedore, RFP Team Lead, was hired, in part, for his experience with Responsive, and he was tasked with activating generative AI (GenAI) to improve his team’s efficiency and effectiveness.
At the time, Perceptyx was:
- Manually piecing together RFP responses from a static Q&A pair database
- Interrupting SMEs via multiple communication channels to complete responses
- Struggling to manage growing VSQ volumes without overwhelming InfoSec
The solution? AI-powered Strategic Responsive Management (SRM) on the Responsive Platform. “We’re a small company. We need to maximize productivity, and Responsive AI really allows us to do that,” Roger said.
From upload to first draft in 30 minutes with Responsive AI
Perceptyx onboarded Responsive quickly and easily — automatically uploading existing Q&A pairs to get the team up and running. Roger and the team centralized all organizational knowledge needed to respond to external information requests and committed to consistent content moderation. His prior Responsive experience shortened the learning curve so that Perceptyx was responding to RFPs as soon as the Content Library was ready.
“The front-end user experience is intuitive,” Roger said. “It’s easy for the average user to pick up quickly.”
For every RFP and VSQ, Roger uses Responsive AI agents to produce a completed draft in 30 minutes.
First, he imports the source document — the RFP or VSQ — into Responsive. The File Mapping Agent automatically ingests and organizes complex documents, identifying key sections, questions, and answers for easy management in Responsive.
With the push of a button, Roger activates the Responsive AI Answering Agent to create tailored answers that are far more accurate than keyword-based tools.
“It’s a game changer. Responsive AI creates a custom answer from all of our content. I haven’t found hallucinations; it only pulls from our data.”
Roger Bedore
RFP Team Lead at Perceptyx
Before Responsive, Perceptyx proposal managers had to copy and paste each RFx question into a database. They would then sort through the results to identify the best fit. If the search came up empty, the proposal managers sent the question to an SME. For proposals that included hundreds of questions, the process to complete a single draft could take days.
“Speed to first draft is dramatically improved; it’s ridiculous compared to what it used to be," Roger said. “We get first drafts ready in 30 minutes.”
Self-service answers protect SME time and boost sales productivity
Roger uses the same Responsive AI agents for VSQs. But if he has to use an online portal to respond, then he turns to Responsive Ask to access his content library while he’s working in the portal.
"I answered 90% of a 300-question security questionnaire using Responsive. Our security lead said if it weren’t for Responsive, she would have worked the entire weekend."
Roger Bedore
RFP Team Lead at Perceptyx
Ask is a conversational AI tool that draws from Perceptyx’s Responsive Content Library. It’s possible to connect Ask to other critical organizational knowledge sources, such as a Help Center, but Perceptyx draws only from their Content Library for now. Ask also cites sources for all of its answers so that users trust the output.
In addition to helping Roger answer security questionnaires, Ask offers self-service access to Responsive AI-crafted answers to salespeople, solutions consultants, and customer success managers at Perceptyx. These field users are able to bypass SMEs to confidently answer one-off questions from prospects and customers. “SMEs now refer everyone to Ask first. It’s our layer of protection for their time,” Roger said.
Now, SMEs only hear from the proposal team via Responsive assignments. Not only has Responsive helped cut down their time spent on RFPs from hours to minutes, it has also quieted all the noise of repetitive requests from multiple sources via multiple channels.
SMEs aren’t the only beneficiaries of getting time back. Prior to using Responsive, the sales team had to micromanage every RFP. There were multiple meetings to align on strategy and gather updates, and they often had to assist the RFP Team in answering questions. Now that Perceptyx uses Responsive, the sales team trusts the RFP Team to own the proposal process, freeing them to focus on prospecting, relationship building, and sales strategy.
"Salespeople spend less time in update meetings or searching for answers. We’re more autonomous as an RFP Team, and that makes a huge difference."
Roger Bedore
RFP Team Lead at Perceptyx
SRM: A force multiplier for small companies
Perceptyx is proving that small teams can have a big impact with the right technology. By adopting Responsive AI and Strategic Response Management, they’ve streamlined their RFP and VSQ processes, protected valuable SME time, and empowered their sales team to focus on selling.
Responsive AI agents enable faster, higher-quality responses, improved team productivity, and scalable growth — all without adding headcount. For Perceptyx, Responsive isn’t just a platform; it’s a force multiplier.
