Full Sail Partners Blog

AEC proposals are notoriously complex—teams juggle RFP requirements, past pursuits, project narratives, resumes, and compliance checks under tight deadlines. Proposals can feel like a marathon of copy/paste, email threads, and last-minute compliance checks. It’s exhausting, and it often crowds out the strategic, creative thinking that actually wins the work.

That’s exactly why AI assisted proposal writing is having a moment.

When routine tasks shrink, your team gets time back to craft sharper narratives, smarter win themes, and more persuasive pitches.

Shred.ai, powered by OpenAsset and fine-tuned by real AEC proposal writers with 20+ years of experience, helps teams move confidently from RFP to pitch. It’s not just about speed; it’s about building a repeatable, reliable system that turns your firm’s knowledge into a competitive advantage.

From RFP to Pitch: A Seamless, AI-Driven Workflow

Proposals should start with strategy, not copy/paste. Shred.ai streamlines the journey from the moment a new RFP lands to the final pitch deck, ensuring teams don’t waste time reinventing the wheel. Instead of digging through folders and outdated proposals, marketers and technical staff can lean on intuitive AI that understands AEC pursuits and responds with context-aware insights.

The result?

A smoother start, fewer blind spots, and a draft that already aligns with your firm’s strengths and past wins. When the groundwork is handled, your team can do its best work—shaping the story, sharpening win themes, and tailoring the pitch to what the client truly values.

Built for AEC by AEC Pros

There are plenty of generic AI tools out there. What sets Shred.ai apart is that it’s trained and tuned by real AEC proposal writers with over two decades in the trenches—people who know the difference between a compliance matrix and a content matrix, and who understand the nuance of project narratives, SOQs, SF330s, and shortlist decks.

Shred.ai is most powerful when used alongside OpenAsset’s DAM, but it can also stand alone as a proposal-focused AI tool. When paired with OpenAsset, it fits naturally into how AEC firms already manage images, project data, and marketing content—helping teams see quick, measurable gains without overhauling their entire tech stack.

Save Hours with AI Search and AI Chat

Shred.ai’s AI Search and AI Chat are built for speed and relevance, helping teams move from blank page to strong first draft in minutes—not days.

• Find winning content in seconds. Instantly scan your entire proposal library and OpenAsset DAM instance relevant insights, project narratives, resumes, and boilerplate.

• Use AI Search to locate past proposals relevant to the current pursuit, by market, scope, delivery method, or client.

• Ask AI Chat for help with win themes and project examples, so you never start from zero. Draft positioning statements, differentiators, and tailored narratives on the spot.

• Start your next proposal fast with suggested content outlines that inspire the team and speed up kickoff.

This isn’t generic AI guessing at answers. It’s tailored to AEC realities, surfacing the best material from your firm’s proposal library and turning it into a draft that actually fits the pursuit.

Enhance Compliance and Extract RFP Details with Ease

Compliance can make or break a pursuit. Shred.ai takes the manual pain out of parsing RFPs by extracting key details verbatim—so your team can respond with confidence and accuracy.

• Intuitive AI reviews your RFP to extract details verbatim, ensuring a compliant response without manual copy/paste.

• Once your RFP is uploaded, Shred.ai captures key details and outlines a plan—turning RFP requirements into a structured response strategy.

• The system surfaces previous content your team has already vetted for similar pursuits, helping reduce redundant work and accelerate quality control.

Finish with rich, tailored add-ons—projects, resumes, and bios pulled directly from OpenAsset—to ensure your submission meets every requirement and tells a cohesive, credible story. Many teams report cutting proposal time in half with this approach.

Real-Time Go/No-Go Analysis: Pursue What You Can Win

Too many firms pursue everything—and burn out their teams in the process. With Shred.ai’s real-time Go/No-Go analysis, you can quickly evaluate fit and prioritize the opportunities that align with your strengths and strategy.

Break the cycle of spending time on low-probability pursuits.

Use AI-driven insights to qualify RFPs based on fit, differentiators, and requirements.

Keep focus where it matters—on pursuits your firm is likely to win.

When 50% of proposals are submitted even when firms aren’t a fit, smarter qualification can be the fastest path to better win rates and healthier teams.

Connect with Confidence: Security, Integration, and Scale

Upgrading your proposal workflow shouldn’t mean compromising security or overhauling your tech stack. Shred.ai is designed to slot in smoothly and protect what matters.

• Vendor-delivered security with SOC 2 Type II compliance, strict data isolation, and privacy-first controls.

• Seamless integration with OpenAsset and your existing AEC systems—no custom builds or heavy dev lift.

• Scalable architecture that grows with your firm without adding IT overhead.

• Customer data is never used to train public models.

It’s a modern platform with guardrails—so your content stays yours, and your systems stay stable.

Quality, Consistency, and Confidence

Speed is great, but not if quality slips. The advantage here is that AI brings structure and context:

• Consistent language across resumes and project sheets

• Fewer outdated specs and stale claims

• Cleaner drafts that reduce rework in redlines

• A shared knowledge layer that helps onboard new team members

When the foundation is clean and consistent, you can push the creative side—tell a sharper story, tailor your differentiators, and craft a pitch that resonates with reviewers.

Creative Where It Counts

The biggest win of AI assisted proposal writing isn’t just time saved—it’s attention reallocated. Instead of sweating file names and pasting scopes across sections, your team can:

• Interview PMs for fresh project insights and results

• Craft visually compelling shortlist presentations

• Work with leadership on positioning and client insight

• Develop value-add ideas that show you understand the client’s goals

That’s the work that moves scores in competitive reviews.

Proposal Power That Pays Off

The business case is clear: when teams spend less time on manual tasks, they spend more time on the work that wins.

• Efficiency at scale: Automate repetitive work to shorten proposal creation time.

• Cost-effective workflows: Reduce effort behind every pursuit.

• Built-in compliance: AI-assisted checks help ensure RFP requirements are met.

• Clear performance insight: Teams see measurable productivity gains in days, not months.

• Proposals stop feeling chaotic and start running like a high-functioning, data-informed process.

AI helps by compressing the “search and sort” part of the job. It reduces duplicate questions to SMEs, flags outdated language before it hits review, and tees up a compliant outline so marketing can focus on storytelling. The result: more time for strategy, fewer errors that trigger rework, and faster leadership approvals.

What’s the ROI of AI in AEC?

Note: Data based on average time savings for OpenAsset customers using AI tooling.

“Faster proposals, fewer errors, and more confident decision making.” That’s the headline outcome. And when you break it down by role, you see where the time savings—and the value—really come from.

Marketing Team — 30% time saved

• AI search pulls past answers and assets instantly

• Auto generated compliance matrix and first draft boilerplate

• Fewer back and forth emails

Technical SMEs — 45% time saved

• Cleaner drafts mean fewer repeat Q&As

• Outdated specs flagged automatically

• AI assisted content drafting

Leadership / Principals — 35% time saved

• Fewer questions from team members about past proposals

• Fewer review cycles before approval

• Quick “Go / No Go” score reduces ad hoc decision meetings

Those savings aren’t abstract; they reflect the compounding effect of shaving minutes and hours off dozens of tasks across the pursuit lifecycle. Multiply that across your pipeline, and the ROI becomes hard to ignore.

From RFP to Pitch with Shred.ai, “AI assisted proposal writing clears the way for creativity.” That’s the promise—and here’s how it plays out, step by step.

A Day-in-the-Life: From Inbox to Draft in Hours 📥➡️📄

Let’s put this into a real scenario.

1. The RFP lands at 9:00 a.m. You upload the PDF.

2. A quick “Go/No-Go” score accelerates approvals or pivots.

3. Shred.ai extracts key requirements verbatim and generates a first pass compliance matrix with sections, page limits, and submittal instructions.

4. Get fast, conversational access to project, people, and file information from OpenAsset - without leaving Shred.

5. Recommendations and win themes are provided: what matters most to the client, how to position your approach, and which differentiators to lead with.

6. Proposal studio transforms RFP criteria into structured, ready-to-edit drafts. SMEs answer fewer repeat questions and spend time refining technical content.

7. Leadership sees a tidy, compliant draft earlier.

8. You submit a strong, compliant proposal—days faster, with fewer late-night edits.

Across that workflow, you’ll notice the same pattern: less searching, less copying, less second guessing. More focus on the message.

Ready to See It in Action?

If you’re wondering whether these gains show up for firms like yours, the short answer is yes—across marketing, SMEs, and leadership. Faster proposals, fewer errors, and more confident decision making aren’t just slogans; they’re operational outcomes when the heavy lifting is automated.

See how AI can transform your AEC workflows connects your projects and people to the content that wins by joining our webinar. See Shred.ai in action and come ready to ask questions.