CASE STUDY 1

AI-Enabled
RFP
Strategy

Turning a fragmented pursuit process into a governed system for better decisions, faster execution, and stronger pursuit performance.

  • Industry: National insurance brokerage

  • Business Context: Multi-line commercial sales

  • My role: VP, Client Strategy and Cross Sell

  • Focus: Revenue growth, decision intelligence

The Constraint

RFPs were handled inconsistently across the firm. Qualification varied, important intelligence was difficult to reuse, and teams repeatedly rebuilt research and content from scratch. Leadership had limited visibility into pursuit quality, resource requirements, and the reasons opportunities were won or lost.

The problem wasn’t a lack of effort. It was the absence of a system for making better pursuit decisions and executing them consistently.

The System

I designed a governed RFP operating model that combines qualification standards, structured collaboration, reusable knowledge, AI-assisted analysis, and human review.

  • Opportunity Qualification
    Formal criteria determine where resources should be invested.

  • Win Strategy & Intelligence
    Relationship, competitive, and business intelligence shape pursuit strategy.

  • AI-Assisted Research
    AI accelerates research, synthesis, requirements analysis, and pursuit preparation.

  • Human Review & Governance
    Expert judgment validates information, manages risk, and determines the final strategy.

  • Performance Intelligence
    Leadership gains visibility into pipeline, outcomes, capacity, and reasons for loss.

My Role

I designed the capability from concept through regional implementation, including the operating model, governance, workflow, technology, adoption, and performance measurement.

  • Redesigned the pursuit workflow and governance model

  • Selected and configured AI and knowledge-management tools

  • Built the information architecture and reusable content library

  • Established review standards, quality controls, and human oversight

  • Trained teams and led adoption

  • Developed performance reporting and leadership dashboards

  • Partnered with regional leadership on pursuit qualification and investment decisions

The Result

  • Higher Win Performance

    A more disciplined qualification and execution model materially improved pursuit outcomes.

  • Faster Execution

    Major proposal cycles became substantially shorter.

  • Greater Capacity

    he team could manage multiple complex pursuits simultaneously without proportional headcount growth.

  • Better Visibility

    Leadership gained insight into pipeline quality, resource allocation, and reasons for loss.

  • Stronger Collaboration

    Clear ownership, shared intelligence, and review standards improved coordination across pursuit teams.

“We stopped treating every RFP as a writing assignment and
started treating it as a business decison supported by a repeatable system.”

Big ideas, real impact.

AI creates more value when it is designed into a better operating model, not added to a broken process.

Technology accelerated research, synthesis, and preparation. The larger transformation came from qualification, goernance, reusable knowledge, explicit decsion points, and a workflow that made expert judgement easier to apply consistently.

That is the pattern I look for in transformation work: Identify where the business is losing time, judgment, or opportunity, then redesign the system before deciding where technology belongs.