Smarter, Faster, Sharper: How AI Can Drive a Modern Proposal Review Cycle

Introduction

The conversation around AI in bid writing is often dominated by one question: Can it write the proposal for us? While generative tools can certainly assist with drafting, there are benefits to be had in other areas, such as across the review process.

The traditional review process is time-intensive and prone to inconsistency, especially when multiple reviewers are involved across different stages. AI offers a way to improve not just speed, but quality, coherence, and compliance.

In our blog on why proposal managers can’t ignore AI, we talked about how integrating AI into each stage of the review cycle – from early compliance check (Pink Team) to final submission – can lighten the admin burden, improve the quality of feedback, and enable human reviewers to focus where they add the most value. This blog expands on this and outlines how.

1: The case for iterative AI reviews

We’ve all felt the pain of the ‘big bang’ reviews, particularly the full quality review – often called Red Team. Rushing towards the review deadline, trying to get all the relevant information, wrestling sections into shape and then skidding them into the review in an exhausted cloud of dust.

Add in the review process, where it can be challenging to find the right reviewers at the right time and then ensuring they deliver the feedback you need, rather than pointing out the misuse of a semicolon in subsection 2.1a. Often, the review feedback is inconsistent and contradictory, with little in the way of constructive advice – other than all feedback must be incorporated (in your 10-page limited section…).

The use of AI in the process allows bid teams to shift toward a ‘little and often’ model. Small, frequent checks by AI tools can keep documents on track, reduce the need for heavy rework later, and help writers course-correct in real time. This is especially valuable when team members are spread across locations and timelines are compressed.

The strength of using AI in your review process lies in consistent, objective quality assurance. Diagram 1 summarises where and how AI can support the review process.

Diagram 1: How AI can improve the effectiveness of the review process

2: Pink Team review – laying the groundwork

The Pink Team review is where the bones of your proposal are assessed. The focus is on ensuring the structure is sound and the right content is being developed, rather than stylistic polish.
AI’s role at Pink Team review:

• Compliance Mapping: The sections can be automatically analyzed against the compliance matrix
• Early alignment checks: AI can scan the draft to assess whether all customer requirements are addressed, even if only superficially at this stage.
• Structural flags: It can highlight major omissions, redundant sections, or areas where key information is misplaced or missing.

Best practice tip: Use AI at Pink Team review to support structure and inclusion, not persuasiveness. This stage is about ensuring the scaffolding is in place.

3: Red Team review – strategy checkpoint

The Red Team review is the focal point of the proposal cycle. It’s where substance meets strategy. Are we answering the question, persuading the customer and standing out?
AI’s role at Red Team review:

• Second compliance pass: AI ensures nothing has drifted since the Pink Team. It can flag any new gaps or changes.
• Win theme analysis: Identifying whether win themes, differentiators, and value propositions appear consistently across sections.
• Linguistic checks: AI excels at catching passive voice, contradictions, or overly repetitive phrasing, common issues when multiple authors are involved.

Human role at Red Team:

This is where your experts shine. Your team should assess:

• Emotional tone: Does this align with what you know of the customer and evaluators and what their needs and desires are?
• Persuasiveness: Are we presenting a compelling case for our solution that aligns with what the customer has asked for?
• Storytelling: Do we have a clear narrative and strong customer alignment?
• Visuals and examples: Are they engaging, accurate, and well-placed?

AI helps with the mechanics, but the strategy and storytelling must come from people.

4: AI’s role at Gold Team review

• Feedback tracking: AI can confirm that Red Team review comments were properly addressed without taking away from the solution.
• Stylistic review: Tense, tone, voice, readability, and sentence flow can all be reviewed at scale.
• Formatting checks: AI tools can enforce word counts, check font consistency, heading styles, and image alignment.

Balance is key: Writers and SMEs remain the owners of the narrative. But AI ensures it’s tight, clean, and consistent.

5: Final and pre-submission checks

Stress levels run high as the submission date looms. This is where you want to double and triple-check everything before you press the button and submit the final proposal. AI can help by acting as your final digital proofreader and process monitor.

Final AI-powered review tasks:

• Legal and financial consistency: AI can flag inconsistencies in legal clauses, financial data, or referenced regulations.
• Final compliance check: Final review of everything against the compliance requirements.
• Font and format checks: Ensures visual consistency across all documents.

Pre-submission checks:

• Annex verification: AI can verify the inclusion of all annexes and forms to ensure they are correctly referenced.
• Naming and structuring: Confirmation of file naming conventions, document order, and folder structure, especially useful for portals with strict requirements.

Conclusion

AI won’t win the contract for you. But it will significantly improve your odds by making your review process smarter, faster, and more consistent.

Used iteratively, AI can handle the repetitive, the mechanical and the easily missed so that your writers and reviewers can focus on insight, persuasion, and impact.

Use AI in sprints tied to your review rhythm. Let it handle the fiddly and time-consuming (but still important) bits while your team tells the story.

Because in the end, it’s still about the customer, the solution, and the strength of your message. AI just helps ensure that the message lands cleanly and powerfully.

Article published: August 2025

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