In this episode, Chris Carter speaks with Jamie, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at MyTender.io, about how AI is reshaping the world of bid writing and proposal management.
After discovering how time-consuming and frustrating bid and tender writing was for many business owners, he and his co-founder doubled down on the opportunity to build a flexible, intelligent AI-powered bid writing platform.
Throughout the conversation, Jamie explains why the application layer of AI, such as how the technology is delivered, used, and adapted within specific industries, is still in the earliest stages of innovation.
He discusses what the future of bid writing may look like as AI takes over repetitive tasks while empowering bid writers to focus on strategy, storytelling, and customer understanding.
Jamie dives into challenges such as skepticism around tone and formatting, organizational readiness for AI adoption, and the evolving role of proposal managers.
The episode closes with practical advice for bid writers on uses AI today, the importance of strong bid/no-bid decisions, and how industries like construction, the built environment, and facilities management can benefit differently from modern AI tools.
Christina Carter (00:00): Their bids are quite good for AI responses in the sense that they're fairly standardized. You don't get many highly technical solutions, which we can still accommodate. They bid a lot as well, so it's high throughput, and they seem to have taken well to our software.
But as you said, going in at a certain point of a specific market or a couple of markets is a much more intelligent move.
Yeah, before I do the podcast.
Okay.
Hi Chris, very good, how are you?
No problem.
Jamie: Hello everyone. I'm Jamie, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at MyTenderIO. I was at university, just finished my second year, and wanted to start an AI business because I saw the opportunity there. My co-founder Sam and I were trying to provide AI automations to different businesses.
Through that, we came across the pain point of bid writing. It was very time-consuming, and people were looking to automate parts of it with AI. Once we came across that idea, we doubled down and started building the product.
We’ve done applications to awards and grants. There were grants at the university, and we won all of them using our software. We also applied for an Innovate UK grant, which we didn't win, but we scored highly. It's competitive. I'm not a bid writer and don't claim bid writing experience, but I've done a fair amount of grant writing and have spoken to hundreds of professional bid writers. So I feel fairly well-equipped to give an opinion on the bid writing domain.
Jamie: A great question. It was a facilities management CEO we reached out to. He said he does this on the weekends, it takes time away from his family, takes the whole weekend, and he didn't enjoy it. He was desperate for any way we could automate it. He said he had five to ten friends who also owned businesses and had the same pain.
At the time, I had no idea what a bid or tender was, so after the call I researched it. I found out how big the market is and how common it is. Almost every industry does some form of bidding. Once I saw the opportunity and the chance to build a product instead of consulting, I preferred the product route. So I found a technical co-founder and started building.
Jamie: At the start, Sam and I were typical startup co-founders doing everything. After six to twelve months, as we matured, I was doing more prompting and AI-related work. I liked that. I was doing sales calls, landing sales, speaking to partners. My interest was in the AI side and building a great product.
I feel lucky that at my age I have a good sense of what I want to do. I love being a product person. I enjoy speaking to customers and getting their feedback. In modern AI product management, technical skills help. I’ve become more technical through MyTenderIO. Understanding AI is important. A lot of the product in AI applications is about how the AI interacts with the customer, the interfaces, and how to get the best out of the AI. I find that fascinating.
Jamie: In the AI space, the application layer on top of foundational models is still in very early days. Foundational models are showing diminishing returns. Each new model isn't a big jump. I don't think we'll see huge improvements there.
The application layer, though, is where innovation will continue. It can improve many domains and vertical-specific applications like bid writing. In two to three years, AI writing will be higher quality, and the tooling around bid creation will improve—from capture to review to post-submission evaluation. Feeding that back into your AI model as memory is something we're experimenting with.
The role of the proposal manager will shift from manual admin—finding the right data, coordinating teams—to being more strategic, more focused on the customer, and working on higher-value tasks that AI enables.
Jamie: I think that's good news because the bid writer will always be involved in the final process, with a human in the loop to ensure the submission is high quality. Our product philosophy is to give as much control and flexibility to the bid writer as possible so they can use their knowledge and skills to reach the submission-ready draft quickly.
Inflexible systems or rigid workflows limit the bid writer's ability to integrate their expertise. So there will always be a bid writer involved. But intelligent systems will get closer to the final draft from the start.
Jamie: The skepticism is usually about how the AI will adopt and generate in their style—their tone, formatting, and organizational knowledge. People worry about how the AI will incorporate business knowledge into the paper.
We already do tone-of-voice settings, templates, etc., but the application layer will continue improving. AI will eventually act like a junior bid writer who can help on nearly every bid.
Jamie: It's largely an education piece about model capabilities. For example, one enterprise customer spent a lot of time in the capture phase researching the customer. They weren’t aware AI could automate that significantly.
You need to make people aware of use cases and support them through changing their process. Some have been writing bids the same way for their whole career. Changing that is a big shift. You need to offer support and guidance. That improves efficiency, quality, and their AI skills.
Jamie: A good question. First, bid writers should get slightly educated on AI—where it offers benefits and at what phase. You don’t need to become an expert but understanding what high-quality AI looks like helps.
Organizations that come to us with more AI awareness have higher-quality specs and ask the right questions. That helps in selecting the right solution. And when presenting it to the CRO, you can make a stronger case for adoption. It helps the CRO make an informed decision based on increased win rates, revenue, and the economics of AI adoption.
Jamie: The bid writers will be using it daily. They have domain knowledge and know what they need. They should have significant influence in the buying decision. Every industry is developing an AI strategy, and many are not getting it right yet.
I'm an ambassador for the Center for Gen Ops, which helps organizations integrate GenAI applications effectively. They have a framework to identify the right use cases. The more informed you are, the better the outcome.
Jamie: The most important thing is getting excited about the technology and what it can do for you. Two very effective things you can try tomorrow:
First, use Perplexity for research. It will speed up your capture phase and bid/no-bid decision significantly.
Second, use AI for analysis. If you feed the evaluation criteria and an existing answer into AI and ask, “Can I improve this to score higher?” it's extremely effective. It gets your brain thinking differently. I use that technique for many strategic decisions.
Jamie: A good question. One area of value is refining your proposed solution. You can run a conversation with the AI, refining and improving the solution with context. In our system, you can add subject-matter expert knowledge, customer understanding, and pain points from meetings or the RFP.
All of that can be used to generate a solution aligned with what the customer wants. A bid writer and SME going back and forth with the AI can deliver a lot of value.
Jamie: That's how we've structured our workflow—aligned with APMP and traditional processes, but with flexibility. Not every business has the same process. AI has to be flexible and work in the background—retrieving information, improving content, sending emails to SMEs, etc.
People should expect a simple, flexible system that fits around their process and lets them add their knowledge and skill.
Jamie: Something I heard early on: There are two people on a bid—the one who wins and the one who decides not to bid. The initial bid/no-bid decision is important. Even with AI making things quicker, you should prioritize the opportunities you're best suited for.
Jamie: A standard answer, but teams with strong win rates take the whole process seriously. They take the bid/no-bid decision seriously. If you bid on the wrong contract, you're wasting the team's time.
Storyboarding is another key part—refining win themes, understanding pain points, and defining your unique selling points. Teams that do this stand out.
Sometimes you don’t have time if it's a quick turnaround, but spending time on strategy pays dividends.
Finally, once you have your score and feedback, you should have a debrief meeting to improve and optimize for the next bid.
Jamie: That’s part of our software workflow, but it's not mandatory. Some bid writers don’t spend time on strategic inputs or storyboarding. We include it in the workflow but don't force it. Flexibility again.
Jamie: Construction and facilities management are different. Construction still needs a strong solution, but it's relationship-based. There’s a strong emphasis on the technical solution and integrating regulations and standards. My cousin works in construction building hospitals, so I have some family context.
Facilities management has high turnover. It's less technical than IT. They focus on the full bid, and they need a solution that iterates quickly and learns from their submissions. The faster it learns how they write, the quicker the improvement curve.
Most verticals still share a common set of requirements.
Jamie: Words of wisdom: Enjoy using AI. Once you start using AI products and see what they can do, it's exciting. And if you want a flexible solution, come chat with us. We can learn about your bid process.
You can email me at jamie@mytender.io or visit our website and book a demo. I'd love to speak to you.