ChatGPT (and Claude) for RFP Responses: Where it can & can't help

RFPs are high-stakes. For many organisations, the difference between winning and losing bids isn't just revenue — it's reputation, growth, and market position. So it's no surprise that teams under pressure are experimenting with general AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to shortcut the grind of proposal management & writing.

On the surface, it feels like a silver bullet: instant drafts, fast automation, content on demand for just $20 a month. But RFPs aren't marketing blogs or school essays. They're contractual documents that demand precision, structure, compliance, and trust. And this is where general AI's shine starts to fade.

Let's break it down: what ChatGPT/Claude can (and can't) do for your RFP responses, why misuse is dangerous, and how to set a stronger foundation for AI-powered proposals.

Where ChatGPT and Claude Can Help

For small businesses, or teams dipping a toe into automation, these tools aren't useless. In fact, they can:

• Generate quick draft answers to simple, repeatable questions (e.g., "Do you provide 24/7 support?")
• Save time on boilerplate content instead of copying from last year's bids
• Rephrase responses for different tones or audiences
• Provide a first draft for early-stage questionnaires, RFIs, or supplier surveys

Example: If asked about Active Directory SSO integration, ChatGPT might return:

"Our solution integrates with Azure Active Directory using pre-built connectors, allowing single sign-on for all users."

That's useful as a draft. It saves keystrokes. But here's the reality: for a live, enterprise-grade RFP, that's not nearly enough.

The Hard Limits of General AI for RFPs

The cracks show quickly when you put ChatGPT or Claude against the complexity of real RFPs.

1. Accuracy is Unreliable

AI doesn't know your products, certifications, or policies. If your company has SOC 2 but not ISO 27001, ChatGPT may confidently claim you have both. That's not just embarrassing — it's a compliance risk that can disqualify you or even expose you legally.

2. No Knowledge Reuse

Bidding isn't one-off. It's iterative. Winning teams build on their past proposals. General AI doesn't access your content library, your governance rules, or your lessons learned. Every time you start, you're back to square one.

3. Lack of Context

Ask ChatGPT about GDPR compliance, and it will give you a generic definition of GDPR. But an evaluator doesn't want definitions — they want your specific policies, roles, and technical controls.

4. Collaboration Blind Spots

Proposals aren't written solo. Finance, IT, HR, Ops, Legal — everyone contributes. ChatGPT can't route a question to your security lead, track who's reviewed what, or manage deadlines. That's where real bottlenecks form.

5. Format Failures

RFPs rarely arrive in neat Word docs. They come in Excel trackers, vendor portals, or PDFs with conditional logic. General AI struggles to respect strict "Yes/No + Comment" fields, character limits, or multi-tabbed submissions.

6. No Confidence Indicators

There's no way to tell if an answer is solid or suspect. Reviewers have to comb through everything line by line — which often adds work instead of reducing it.

The Risks of Getting It Wrong

Let's be blunt: a weak blog post might dent your SEO rankings. A weak RFP response can sink a million-pound deal.

The risks of misusing general AI include:

• Non-compliance with mandatory security, financial, or legal requirements
• Reputational damage if evaluators catch fabricated claims
• Financial loss from disqualification or even breach of contract
• Team inefficiency — chasing down errors instead of building competitive strategy

Why Purpose-Built Systems Outperform

This is why dedicated RFP/bid platforms exist. They're not just word processors with AI bolted on. They're designed around the reality of proposal management:

• Governed content libraries of approved, up-to-date answers
• Ownership, versioning, and expiry controls so information stays accurate
• Collaboration workflows to pull in SMEs at the right moment
• Multi-format support (Word, Excel, portals)
• Analytics and confidence scores to show what works — and what doesn't

A Forrester study found that organisations using dedicated RFP software respond 35% faster and achieve a 27% higher win rate compared to those relying on manual processes or general AI alone.

That's not marginal. That's competitive advantage.

The Elephant in the Room: Price

Let's address the reason so many teams default to ChatGPT or Claude in the first place: cost.

Most dedicated RFP platforms are priced for the Fortune 500, not the everyday proposal team. $20 per user per month for ChatGPT looks tempting when the alternative is a six-figure annual contract for enterprise software. For many small and mid-sized organisations, that feels completely out of reach.

But here's the trap: what you save in licensing fees, you burn in inefficiency, rework, and missed opportunities. Every hour your team spends rewriting generic AI outputs or chasing down SMEs is hidden cost. Every lost bid because of outdated or inaccurate content is lost ROI.

That's why we built BidScript differently.

BidScript starts at just £49.99 per month.

That's not a typo. For the cost of a couple of coffees a week, you get a purpose-built RFP solution covering the source to submit.

It's an insane ROI when you stack it against the cost of losing even a single bid.

This is the middle ground the market has been missing: enterprise-grade bid knowledge management, priced for real-world teams.

The Missing Foundation: Knowledge Management

Here's the truth nobody likes to say out loud: AI isn't the answer until your knowledge base is in order.

If your "bid library" is a mess of outdated folders and version chaos, ChatGPT will only accelerate that chaos. A good RFP engine needs:

• Centralisation — one source of truth
• Governance — ownership, review cycles, expiry
• Curation — removing duplication, junk, and irrelevance
• Accessibility — so the right people find the right content, fast

That's why we argue: AI without knowledge management is chaos. AI with knowledge management is competitive advantage.

The Future: From Assistants to Autonomous Libraries

The next evolution isn't just using ChatGPT or Claude in isolation — it's embedding AI into a living, governed knowledge system.

Emerging bid tools (and this is where BidScript is pushing the frontier) are:

• Detecting expiring or conflicting content automatically
• Syncing changes across SharePoint, Google Drive, and CRMs
• Surfacing siloed intelligence from won/lost deals and internal systems
• Learning from every bid to refine the library itself

This is how we move from static archives to autonomous bid libraries — systems that don't just store information, but actively manage and improve it.

Bottom Line

ChatGPT and Claude can help — but only at the margins. They're assistants, not solutions. They save keystrokes, but they don't win bids.

If you're responding to small, one-off RFPs, they might be enough. But for complex, high-value proposals where accuracy, governance, and collaboration matter, they're insufficient — and risky.

Winning organisations will:

• Build a solid knowledge management foundation
• Layer in AI where it accelerates, not undermines
• Invest in tools designed for the reality of bidding

That's where the future of proposal management lies — and where BidScript is leading.

More precision. Less risk. Bids that actually win.