Tender responses are foundational to winning new business but are often challenging to manage. Traditional approaches can feel overwhelming: teams spend hours chasing subject matter experts (SMEs), reformatting content, and answering repetitive questions under tight deadlines. Meanwhile, buyers are raising the bar. They expect faster responses, more personalization, and stronger demonstrations of value.
AI-powered Strategic Response Management overcomes these exact pain points. By combining automation, knowledge management, and collaborative workflows, teams can respond more quickly, with higher accuracy and less wasted effort. The result is tenders that are completed faster, tailored more effectively, and positioned to win.
For instance, Maintel uses AI to manage a growing volume of complex tenders across public and private sectors, cutting response times by 50%. By automatically analyzing documents, populating drafts, and surfacing trusted content from its knowledge library, the team has simplified collaboration between sales and subject matter experts. With routine work handled by AI, Maintel can focus on strategy, deliver higher-quality bids, and compete for more opportunities with confidence.
The science behind AI-powered tender writing
Advances in AI technology have quickly transformed tender and RFP writing, making it possible to generate accurate drafts, surface relevant content, and analyze buyer requirements in minutes.
The technology powering the process:
- Large language models (LLMs): Trained on vast amounts of text, these models draft answers using existing knowledge and buyer prompts. They speed up first drafts, cut down on repetitive work, and produce human-quality responses that align with an organization’s voice.
- Generative AI: This technology produces first drafts that combine approved content, past responses, and contextual cues from each request. By interpreting requirements, adapting templates, and working with AI agents and TRACE Score™, generative AI helps to ensure every draft is accurate, consistent, and aligned with your organization’s voice.
- Analytical engines: These capabilities assess win probability, monitor deadlines, and support bid/no-bid decisions based on historical outcomes. They also “shred” bids and RFPs to extract requirements and provide performance insights that guide future response strategies.
This combination allows teams to handle more tenders with greater speed and accuracy. Importantly, AI in Strategic Response Management is not a replacement for human expertise. Instead, it handles routine and repetitive tasks, freeing professionals to focus on strategy, storytelling, and building trust with buyers.
The process in action
When you upload an RFP document, the SRM platform’s AI immediately “shreds” it by scanning the file line by line to extract requirements, deadlines, and key details. Those requirements are mapped to approved content in your content library, with suggested responses surfaced for each section.
The AI then creates a draft by pulling in relevant answers, case studies, and pricing models, while analytical engines flag deadlines, assess complexity, and highlight compliance checkpoints. The result is a structured, pre-populated draft that gives you a clear starting point for refinement, strategy, and final review.
For example, if your team receives an RFP with hundreds of detailed questions spanning IT architecture, security practices, and customer success metrics, the platform instantly shreds the document, extracts each requirement, and maps them to approved content in your library.
Within minutes, you’ll have draft answers populated with relevant details and ready for SME review. A tender that once required days of manual effort can now be accomplished in less than an hour.
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How to write a tender with AI
Writing a tender with AI works best when supported by process and structure. Here’s how teams can make the most of AI:
1. Build a strong content foundation
AI is only as good as the knowledge it can access. A knowledge base serves as a centralized, curated library for company-approved answers, policies, and data. When it’s well-maintained, AI can quickly surface accurate information without the risk of errors or outdated content.
2. Automate requirement analysis
When a bid arrives, AI analyzes the document and breaks it into structured questions and requirements. It categorizes each item, cross-links related ones, and flags recurring requirements or potential conflicts. Instead of manually sifting through pages, your team sees a clear outline of what needs to be answered, saving hours of work and reducing the chance of missed details.
3. Generate and customize drafts
AI generates first drafts by matching each requirement to the most relevant content in your library, taking both substance and tone into account. Modern AI tender writers handle the formatting and structure for you, while also pulling in up-to-date statistics or case study excerpts. From there, you can refine the draft with buyer-specific details, differentiators, and win themes so every submission is fast, polished, and persuasive.
4. Refine with human expertise
Human oversight remains the most important step. As a proposal manager, you and your SMEs add the nuance that AI cannot — strategic positioning, customer empathy, and persuasive storytelling. With your review guiding the process, tenders become accurate, compliant, and compelling.
5. Enrich answers with supporting material
AI can suggest supporting content such as customer testimonials or project timelines to make your responses more compelling. Key factors like clarity, evidence, and tone can be adjusted for each section, ensuring the final product is not only compliant but also persuasive and differentiating. These enhancements often translate directly into higher win rates by giving evaluators clear reasons to choose your bid.
6. Review and refine with analytics
AI-powered analytics help you track win rates, completion time, and areas for improvement. By reviewing results, closing feedback loops, and iterating on your content library, your process becomes more effective with every tender.
Responsive offers an intelligent solution for better bidding
Responsive is a leading platform in Strategic Response Management and AI-powered tender authoring. Its integrated ecosystem delivers unmatched productivity and quality for organizations responding to RFPs, security questionnaires, and other external information requests.
Organizations such as JAGGAER, O.C. Tanner, and Accruent use Responsive to speed up their tender processes and win more business. O.C. Tanner, for example, boosted productivity by 43% and saved $150,000 in content search time, while Accruent now manages 15–25 RFPs at once (up from 5–6) and completes security questionnaires in half the time.
Key capabilities include:
- Ask: Conversational, generative AI that democratizes knowledge across the organization. Ask delivers answers backed by TRACE Score™ verification, ensuring transparency and accuracy.
- LookUp: A keyword-based tool that works directly in Excel and online portals, making it easy to pull approved Q&A pairs into tender responses.
- Knowledge Management: A centralized knowledge base that stores, organizes, and governs trusted company information.
- Proposal Builder: Streamlines the creation of polished, on-brand proposals with dynamic templates, consistent formatting, and automated content updates.
Together, these capabilities give proposal professionals more time to focus on high-value work — from refining win strategies to building stronger relationships with buyers.
Ready to see Responsive in action?
No matter your industry, you can use Responsive for your end-to-end tender and RFP needs. With AI-powered tools and a trusted content library, you can respond faster, ensure compliance, and stand out with personalized, compelling submissions. From document analysis and requirement shredding to fully formatted, human-reviewed responses, you gain the ability to compete at the highest level.
AI in tender writing is happening now and provides a proven competitive advantage, enabling you to win more bids without sacrificing accuracy or compliance.
Request a demo to see how Responsive can transform your tender process and help you exceed your goals with AI.