Getting the Best from Generative AI in Proposal Writing

Why Best Practice is the Secret to Unlocking AI for Every Member of Your Proposal Team

Introduction

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are changing how bidding teams work—accelerating early drafts, summarising RFPs, rephrasing technical content, and even suggesting win themes. But while the technology is powerful, results vary wildly between individuals.

Some team members quickly grasp how to prompt the tool well, turning out useful content in seconds. Others feel frustrated, unsure of what to ask or how to phrase it. Some rely too heavily on AI, copying outputs without review. Others try once, find the results generic or wrong, and never touch it again.

This inconsistency isn’t a people problem—it’s a process problem.

At Callm Intelligence, we’ve worked with dozens of bidding teams and built an AI best practice training program to solve exactly this. The goal isn’t just to mitigate risk. It’s to level the playing field, so everyone on the team—from the senior bid writer to the occasional SME—can confidently use AI to make their work faster, easier, and more strategic.

The Real Challenge: Variability, Not Just Risk

When we talk about AI in bidding, much of the conversation focuses on privacy, compliance, and hallucinations. These are valid concerns—but they’re only half the story.

The real day-to-day challenge is that AI performance depends heavily on the user. Some team members naturally write strong prompts, know how to iterate, and get great output. Others don’t even know where to start. They ask vague questions, get vague answers, and lose faith in the tool. This creates fragmentation. Instead of speeding everyone up, AI speeds up some—and leaves others behind.

Worse, people often feel embarrassed to admit they don’t know how to “use it right.” So usage becomes inconsistent, outcomes become uneven, and teams can’t confidently rely on AI for key stages of the bidding process.

The Opportunity: Turn AI into a Teamwide Capability

To truly benefit from generative AI, organizations need to approach it like any other core tool: with structured onboarding, shared standards, and supportive workflows.

That’s where best practice comes in.

In our training programs, we focus on helping teams:

• Understand what AI is good at and not good at in the context of bidding

• Learn how to craft effective prompts tailored to tenders, win themes, and scoring criteria

• Recognize when to use AI for ideation versus when human nuance is critical

• Develop repeatable workflows (e.g. use AI to summarise, then refine collaboratively)

• Build confidence—not just compliance

We’ve found that when teams adopt shared principles for AI use, even junior or occasional contributors can quickly produce high-quality work. It also boosts morale. People stop feeling like they’re “not good at AI” and start feeling like they’ve gained a superpower.

How Callm Supports This Shift

At Callm Intelligence, we don’t just advocate for AI in bidding—we teach teams how to actually get value from it.

Our AI Best Practice Course for Bidding Teams is designed to close the gap between potential and performance. It recognises that while generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini are powerful, their effectiveness depends entirely on how they're used—and by whom.

Some team members may quickly figure out how to prompt well. Others may struggle, feel unsure, or even abandon the tool altogether after a bad first impression. That’s where structured, real-world training becomes essential.

The course helps bidding teams:

• Understand what AI is actually good for in the proposal process—and where it can mislead

• Learn how to write prompts that get useful, on-brand, and evaluator-focused content

• Build repeatable habits for drafting, reviewing, and editing AI-generated responses

• Gain the confidence to use AI as a partner in the bidding process—not just a novelty

We don’t teach theory. We teach the daily, practical ways AI can support faster, smarter, more consistent bidding—regardless of a team member’s experience level.

This course is helping teams turn AI into a repeatable advantage—and making sure no one gets left behind as tools evolve.

Conclusion: Make AI Work for Everyone on Your Team

The future of bidding will be AI-assisted. But to make the most of that future, we need to treat AI not as a magic button—but as a craft. That craft can be taught, supported, and improved over time.

Best practice isn’t about restriction. It’s about unlocking the full value of AI across your team, so no one gets left behind, and everyone can contribute their best.

With the right mindset, the right tools, and the right guidance, AI stops being hit-or-miss—and starts becoming a dependable, everyday advantage.

Let’s make AI usable—for everyone.