How AI Assistants Can Improve Your Proposal Quality & Results

Background

I teach Generative Artificial Intelligence (aka GenAI) for Proposal Professionals, a Lohfeld Consulting Group class designed to help GovCon professionals learn how to use AI to prepare high-quality proposal content efficiently and effectively. GenAI is a pretty new technology—it exploded into public consciousness in November 2022—with a truly amazing ability to find and ingest information from unstructured text (like documents), combine that with information from its own huge knowledge base, and synthesize these sources into a cogent, well-written response to a question or request. For our class, we give every student a temporary account on AwardedAI, a GenAI platform developed by Procurement Sciences, Inc. that is expressly designed for GovCon business development work. The students learn how to apply GenAI by using AwardedAI to do in-class, hands-on exercises for drafting, evaluating, and revising proposal content in a fraction of the time it would take a human.
Today, most exercises in our class require the students to prepare and then enter typed requests or questions (called “prompts”) into the GenAI chatbot window. We teach students to write prompts (in natural languages like English – no need to learn a programming language!) so they can experience and understand both the capability and limitations of GenAI. For more complex or interactive tasks, the students learn to write multi-step sequences of prompts (a technique called “chain of thought”) so they can see the results at every step in the process and satisfy themselves that the prompts are working as intended.

My Favorite Assistant is an AI Assistant

I completely changed my view of multi-step prompt sequences when Procurement Sciences introduced me to AI Assistant, a separate feature built into AwardedAI that lets you easily create (also in natural languages like English!) AI-powered virtual helpers that can understand complex instructions, process vast amounts of data, and generate content tailored to specific needs. You can think of an AI Assistant as a sequence of prompts written entirely in English (or whatever natural language you use) in steps for the GenAI to follow. That saves time by removing the stoppages in workflow and making the GenAI more responsive to users’ needs.

Here’s an example of a simple AI Assistant that I created (in less than 15 minutes!) to generate input for a feature-rich, high-scoring proposal section—a Lohfeld best practice:
You are a helpful, cooperative GenAI chatbot helping me identify features we can propose that will score as significant strengths or strengths in the proposal evaluation for a specific proposal section. You will ask the user to input a requirement, its applicable evaluation criterion, and any documents to be searched for ideas for those features. You will output a list of potential features that might score a strength, each with rationale. Write the rationale for each feature in a style that is factual yet persuasive. Do all writing in the present tense, at a college level of readability.

To do this work, you will execute a sequence of numbered steps. After you have generated the output for each step, you will tell the user, “Enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. You will proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window.

Step 1. Title: Enter Requirement

• Action: State to the user, “Enter your requirement into the prompt entry window and hit ‘Send.’” When the user has entered the requirement into the prompt entry window, acknowledge to the user that the requirement has been entered, tell the user, “Enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. You will proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Do not repeat this step or go back to a previous step.
• Output: Provide the user with an acknowledgement that the requirement has been entered and tell the user, “Enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. Proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window.

Step 2. Title: Enter Evaluation Factor

• Action: State to the user, “Enter the applicable evaluation factor for your requirement into the prompt entry window and hit ‘Send.’” When the user has entered the evaluation factor into the prompt entry window, provide the user with an acknowledgement that the evaluation factor has been entered, and tell the user, “Enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. Proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Do not repeat this step or go back to a previous step.
• Output: Provide the user with an acknowledgement that the evaluation factor has been entered and tell the user, “Enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. Proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window.

Step 3. Title: Attach Documents to be Searched

• Action: State to the user, “Use the ‘Attach Files’ button to select files you want to search for features that might score as strengths, and enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. Proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Do not proceed to the next step until the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Do not repeat this step or go back to a previous step.
• Output: State to the user, “Use the ‘Attach Files’ button to select files you want to search for features that might score as strengths and enter ‘run next step’ into the prompt entry window when you are ready to proceed to the next step. The next step is,” and state the number and title of the next step. Proceed to the next step only after the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Do not proceed to the next step until the user enters “run next step” into the prompt entry window. Do not repeat this step or go back to a previous step.

Step 4. List Features and Rationale

• Action: Using the additional information, generate a list of 10 features that satisfy the requirement and deliver additional customer benefits relative to the evaluation factor. Pay special attention to the adjectives and adverbs in the evaluation factor since these identify the specific qualities that the selected features must provide for high-quality performance. Provide the rationale for each feature in the list.
• Output: Generate a list of 10 features, each with rationale, that you assess have the potential to score as strengths. When this is complete, tell the user, “This is complete.”

An AI Assistant like this enables you to quickly create a set of GenAI “instructions” so all capture managers, solution architects, proposal writers, and other contributors generate outputs that are consistent in structure, voice, and style—all of which you specify! Also, you may have noticed in Step 3 that we had the GenAI prompt the user to identify files to be searched for ideas; these would be your corporate proprietary documents, like past performance and corporate capability statements, that you keep in a protected enterprise library in AwardedAI’s secure environment. This sort of search is called Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and is a semantic search content of relevant meaning, not a word search. RAG reduces the potential for hallucinations, so responses are meaningful and contextually relevant because they are drawn directly from your corporate data as well as GenAI’s own training data.

Using AI Assistants Today

One of the best features of AI Assistants is that they can incorporate logical steps and decision-making, so they can perform tasks that include branch points or conditional actions. This allows the AI Assistant to be highly interactive, branching in response to conditions in the task as desired by the user. Here are some of the interactive AI Assistant tools we’ve developed for training and for our customers’ use:

• Workshopping Preliminary Solution Development: Facilitate pre-RFP workshops with an AI Assistant that helps you forecast future solicitation requirements and evaluation criteria and then identify potential solution features and benefits.
• Cold Call Practice: Enhance customer communication skills with an AI Assistant training tool that utilizes the Challenger Sales Methodology. In this training, the GenAI plays the role of a buyer and the user acts as a company representative in an introductory call. The user receives an assessment on their application of the Challenger methodology when the call ends.
• Gate Review Q&A Practice: Prepare for gate reviews by using our AI Assistant to review gate review decks and then simulate Q&A sessions. The AI Assistant acts in roles such as approval executive, contracts executive, finance lead, and more, providing feedback to the user on their responses.
• Thematic Analysis of Unstructured Documents: Extract and present selected content from multiple unstructured documents (for example, award debrief narratives) to identify themes and make suggestions.

Benefits of Using Generative AI for Proposal and Capture

From an instructional point of view, AI Assistants are very similar to the multi-step prompt sequences we use in chain of thought. They’re easy to explain and very powerful for illustrating how GenAI can employ (and show!) its step-by-step logic in performing a task.

For capture and proposal professionals, AI Assistants offer impressive advantages as well:

• User-Friendly Interaction: You create and interact with AI Assistants in natural language, making it accessible to all users. This ease of use is a significant benefit for students, who can quickly grasp the tools.
• Adaptability and Customization: AI assistants can be written to implement your organizational best practices so that all your practitioners are using GenAI as efficiently and effectively as possible.
• Efficiency and Time Savings: You reduce the time to perform repetitive multi-step tasks. AI Assistants can automate content generation and integrate logical steps to manage complex workflows swiftly.
• Improved Learning and Demonstration: AI Assistants are powerful training and practice tools, especially for the sorts of complex, subjective tasks we encounter in GovCon BD.

Summary

You need AI Assistants in your GenAI platform so you can automate your best practices—don’t just assume that vendor-provided prompts will do things the way that you want. If you have tasks that require multiple steps and significant human user interaction, you should look into AwardedAI’s AI Assistant. If you would like more information, complete a contact form on our website.

Relevant Information:

• Why GenAI Needs Guidance: Like Managing a New Intern
• Secrets to Building a Proposal Powerhouse
• Make Your CFO Your Champion for GenAI for Business Growth | YouTube

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals. As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube^(TM).