Use An AI Learning Strategy to Win Proposals Now

AI learning is accelerating, and the gap between teams building systematic capability and those experimenting in isolation is widening.Lohfeld Consulting surveyed capture and proposal professionals to understand how teams are keeping up with AI advances in bid and proposal work, and the results reveal both strong individual initiative and a significant organizational gap. When asked: “How do you primarily keep up with AI advances in bid and proposal work?” 142 respondents answered:

• 60%: Self-study and experimentation
• 21%: Peer and community learning
• 16%: Formal courses and training
• 3%: I have not started yet

Most professionals are engaged and motivated. The challenge is that self-reliance dominates, formal training is underused, and a small segment has not started at all. Each pattern carries its own risks and opportunities.

Self-Study: Motivated but Uneven

Self-directed AI learning builds individual adaptability and is often the fastest way to develop practical fluency with new tools. The challenge, though, is consistency across a team. When each person learns independently, capabilities become uneven: one proposal manager may use AI to draft past performance narratives while a colleague on the same bid avoids it entirely. The result is a team without a shared framework, which creates quality inconsistencies and compliance risks on bids where precision matters the most.

Peer Learning: Valuable When Deliberate

Almost a quarter of the respondents rely primarily on peers and community to keep up with AI advances in bid and proposal work. Peer learning surfaces what is working on live proposals faster than most formal curricula can respond. It works best when it is intentional: teams that hold regular AI knowledge exchanges, maintain shared prompt libraries, or debrief experiments together extract far more value than those relying on informal conversation.

Formal Training: The Underused AI Learning Accelerator

Only 16% of respondents use formal training as their primary method for keeping up with AI advances. However, formal instruction provides what self-study cannot: consistent mental models, clear standards for validating AI output before it enters a proposal, and repeatable workflows that can be embedded across an entire team. Without that foundation, teams using self-study methods often develop strong individual habits and inconsistent organizational practices.

Not Started Yet: The Entry Point Is Lower Than You Think

Only 3% of respondents have not yet engaged with AI in their bid and proposal work. But the entry point is lower than most expect, and the return is immediate. Using AI to summarize a lengthy RFP or outline a past performance narrative takes minutes and can shift how a team thinks about what is possible. A single successful experiment builds the confidence to go further, and early familiarity compounds quickly into meaningful capability.

Build an AI Learning Strategy, Not Just AI Learning Habits

The survey data reveals a clear pattern: most teams are learning AI by default, not by design. Companies that apply AI most effectively in bid and proposal work build a deliberate roadmap that draws on all three methods together: self-study develops individual fluency; peer learning circulates what is working across teams in real time; and formal training establishes the shared standards that allow AI capability to scale into stronger proposals and higher win rates. Each method alone has limits, but when combined and sequenced intentionally, they form a compounding organizational advantage.

Lohfeld Consulting offers resources to support all three types of learning:

• Self-Study: Lohfeld Consulting just published From Prompts to Proposals: An AI Maturity Model, a step-by-step guide for building AI maturity across a bid and proposal operation, paired with an AI Maturity Self-Assessment that helps teams benchmark where they stand and identify exactly where to focus next.
• Peer Learning: Our consultants bring structured knowledge transfer directly into client engagements, working alongside proposal teams on live bids so that AI capability and real-world application develop together.
• Formal Training: Lohfeld offers Generative AI for Proposal Professionals, an online class that teaches practical AI application across the full proposal lifecycle, from capture research to final submission, giving teams a shared framework they can apply immediately.

Lohfeld Consulting can help your team build a successful AI learning roadmap—contact us to learn where to start.

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Put your AI learning strategy to work with these Lohfeld resources:

• How to Use AI for Ethical Competitive Intelligence Now: Discover how capture managers are using AI to research competitors, analyze solicitations, and build stronger win strategies while staying within ethical and legal boundaries.
• How AI Is Changing Proposal Work Now: “What area of bid and proposal operations has AI had the most positive impact?” We first posed this question in August 2024 and again in February 2026; the results are revealing.
• How to Create a Proposal Style Guide Using AI: A proposal style guide is an overlooked yet powerful tool. Teams often view style guides as basic writing aids to ensure consistency, but they are far more strategic.

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).