Guest Post: How Proposal AI Can Solve Government Contracting Problems 

Article contributed by Nick Schiffler, Guest Contributor, Deltek

How Proposal AI Can Solve Government Contracting Problems 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly moving from an emerging tool to a core part of how businesses operate across almost all industry sectors. For government contractors, it can be a vital element in every high-performing proposal team’s work, especially in an environment that is only getting more complicated and competitive each year.  

With increased competition and fewer resources, the ability to respond quickly and strategically can be the difference between winning and losing a bid. Fortunately, AI proposal tools can help. 

Untangling The Government Proposal Process 

To understand why proposal AI is filling such a big need in the GovCon space, it’s important to first understand the complexity of what goes into a winning proposal.  

The government proposal process starts when officials issue a Request for Proposal (RFP), which outlines all necessary information and instructions for companies to prepare their submissions. These documents typically include critical details such as the scope of work, pricing structures, and compliance.

Key Insight:
Government contractors report spending more than seven hours developing the first draft of a single proposal, according to the 2025 Deltek Clarity GovCon Study.

This time commitment reflects the depth and complexity of RFPs, which often require detailed responses across scope, pricing, compliance, and technical criteria. It's no surprise that more teams are turning to AI-powered proposal assistants to streamline this process and reduce manual effort.

Companies then craft and submit their proposals, ensuring they match up with the RFP’s requirements. Once the proposals are in, officials review them and identify those that are competitive enough to move forward. These are known as the “shortlisted” candidates. 

Following the shortlisting, negotiations commence between agency officials and the selected companies. During this phase, companies might be asked to revise their offers to address any concerns or changes. These revised proposals are then reviewed again, with officials seeking the one that offers the best overall value. Before awarding the contract, the agency conducts a final assessment for details like capabilities and compliance to pick the winning contractor. In short, it’s a long process.  

To get from the initial proposal to the shortlisting and eventually to get selected as the winning proposal, contractors have lots of steps to manage and plenty of regulations to follow. It’s a logistical and resourcing challenge made more difficult by today’s constantly changing GovCon environment. As a result, to save time, money, and sanity, more contractors are turning to specific tools designed to ease the proposal process. And many of those tools leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI). 

How Proposal AI Tools Can Help 

The recent boom in AI tools and resources for proposals is more than just hype. Proposal teams are using AI to fill out their capture plans, respond to RFIs, create compliance matrices, and break down complex RFPs into more manageable documents.  

This new wave of tools is often referred to as proposal AI — artificial intelligence specifically designed to support and streamline the proposal writing and development — and is quickly becoming a must-have for GovCon teams. These tools are built to understand the structure, language, and compliance requirements of federal RFPs, helping teams respond faster and more accurately. 

Specifically, in the government contracting space, there are several problems that these tools can solve for government proposal professionals:  

• Generic language. Proposal teams are often scrambling to get their responses in on time, which can lead to vague and overly descriptive responses that fail to align with requirements. 

• Failure to adhere to RFP instructions. When scanning through an RFP that is many pages long, it’s all too easy for the proposal response to be missing sections or contain misaligned responses with evaluation criteria.  

• Compliance gaps. Even for thorough proposal teams, when manually reviewing proposal documents, page limits, formatting guidelines or mandatory certifications can sometimes be overlooked. 

Proposal teams that embrace AI will be able to meet these challenges. By leveraging tools like those built into the Deltek GovWin IQ platform of government contract market intelligence, they’ll find greater efficiencies through faster speed, sharper accuracy, and deeper insight. These tools act as AI solutions for government RFPs, offering features like proposal drafting automation and intelligent RFP management that help teams stay ahead of the curve. 
 
As more companies integrate AI into their government contracting proposal workflows, the performance gap between adopters and non-adopters will only grow, transforming proposal AI from a competitive edge to a strategic necessity.