Didn’t See That RFI Coming? Here’s How AI Can Help You Catch Up!

In federal business development, getting ahead of the opportunity is always the goal. Ideally, your team has identified potential procurements well before anything appears on SAM.gov, allowing time to shape requirements, engage with stakeholders, and gather valuable customer insight. But that’s not always possible. Sometimes the first sign you see of an opportunity is the release of a Request for Information (RFI).

Whether it’s due to bandwidth, shifting priorities, or limited access, many teams are now finding themselves reacting to RFIs rather than shaping them. And with the recent surge in federal RFIs, it’s more important than ever to respond quickly—and strategically.

So how can you stay competitive, even when you’re late to the game?

One powerful shortcut: use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the customers’ issues and hot buttons so you can tailor your messaging with speed and precision. In this article, we’ll walk through how I used ChatGPT to extract insights from a real RFI, and how those insights could help shape a stronger, faster, more focused response—and then further be used to tailor questions for follow-up discussions with the customer.

Use AI to Analyze Customer Issues and Hot Buttons

I get it—you’re busy. You need to respond to five RFIs, you have two active proposals, and six active capture efforts. If this is the first you’re learning of an opportunity, you don’t always have time to read between the lines, figure out the customer issues, and then tailor your response to those concerns. Enter ChatGPT (or your AI tool of choice). To demonstrate the benefits of generative AI in this scenario, I found an RFI on SAM.gov, uploaded it to ChatGPT, and asked ChatGPT to summarize the customer hot buttons and issues (prompt: What are the key issues and hot buttons that concern this customer?). In just a few minutes, I had the following summary:

1. Proactive, Not Reactive, Customer Experience (CX)

• Current CX efforts (surveys, tickets) are reactive and lagging.
• They want a real-time, predictive, and automated understanding of customer experience — using data and synthetic monitoring rather than waiting for complaints.
• Hot button: “Don’t make the customer the sensor.”

2. Integration of Diverse Data Sources

• Data about customer interactions and system performance are siloed and fragmented.
• They seek unified, normalized, and accessible CX data, integrated across Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), Information Techology Operations Management (ITOM), operational data, sentiment, and synthetic tests.
• Hot button: Breaking down silos and enabling the CX Office to access and analyze all relevant data.

3. Automation & Orchestration Across Systems

• Current workflows are cumbersome and manual.
• Customer needs to streamline complex processes using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), workflow automation, and Infrastructure-as-Code.
• Hot button: Reduce human friction, eliminate redundant processes, and ensure automation doesn’t disrupt operations.

4. Minimizing Disruption During Implementation

• Implementing new technologies in a large, complex public-sector environment poses risks.
• Customer wants assurance that integration of CX tools with legacy systems (like ServiceNow) won’t disrupt service delivery.
• Hot button: Smooth, non-disruptive transitions and compatibility with existing platforms.

5. End-to-End CX Measurement

• They aim to measure CX comprehensively across all touchpoints, from first interaction to post-support, without relying only on subjective feedback.
• Hot button: Establish consistent, standardized CX metrics that align with actual user experience — not just Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance.

6. Enhancing ITSM & Communication

• Communication with customers is currently perceived as reactive or fragmented.
• Customer wants proactive, clear, CX-focused communication via ITSM, that keeps customers informed and engaged.
• Hot button: Build trust and loyalty by being transparent and communicative.

7. Security & Compliance

• Handling and analyzing customer data raises security and privacy concerns.
• They need solutions that meet government security standards (e.g., FedRAMP, Federal Information Security Modernization Act [FISMA]), protect sensitive data, and include incident response and encryption.
• Hot button: Data must be secure, compliant, and responsibly managed.

8. Future-Ready, Innovative Technologies

• They are explicitly asking for innovative, emerging technologies and approaches to stay ahead of customer needs.
• Hot button: Demonstrate awareness of trends (like AIOps, synthetic users, Digital Experience Management (DXM), sentiment AI) and how they can be applied effectively.

Summary of Priorities:

• Be proactive and predictive in measuring and improving CX.
• Break down data silos and deliver integrated insights.
• Automate intelligently without disrupting operations.
• Ensure seamless integration and minimize risk.
• Provide actionable, real-time metrics and monitoring.
• Communicate effectively and transparently.
• Keep data secure and comply with all applicable standards.
• Propose forward-thinking, innovative solutions that align with their vision.

 

Now, if you’re in a time pinch, you may just have to take the AI issues and hot buttons at their word. Worst case, you’re tailoring your content to some issues that the customer doesn’t really care all that much about. But this was an exercise in demonstrating the benefits of using AI to support the RFI process—and so I did have time to validate these issues and hot buttons. And they all do align quite well with the sentiment expressed in the posted RFI document.

Leverage the AI Analysis in Your RFI Response

On to the next steps. The above prompt very quickly pulled out some key issues that this customer cares about. Then, as I am responding to the RFI questions, I can use these points to shape my response. To help with this process, I gave ChatGPT the following prompt: “draft some suggested messaging or positioning points.” Here’s how ChatGPT responded:

1. Proactive, Predictive CX

"We eliminate the need for customers to act as sensors by delivering real-time, predictive insights into user experience. Our solution integrates synthetic monitoring, sentiment analysis, and operational data to proactively detect and address pain points before they impact users."

• Use terms they like: “moving beyond traditional surveys and tickets,” “proactive, real-time, predictive monitoring.”
• Highlight how you measure and act on experience without waiting for feedback.

2. Breaking Down Data Silos

"We unify disparate CX and system performance data into an integrated platform, normalizing and enriching it for actionable insights. Our data strategy ensures the CX Office has comprehensive, timely access to the information they need."

• Emphasize your data integration and normalization capabilities.
• Mention ability to ingest from ITSM, ITOM, synthetic users, sentiment analysis, and operational metrics.

3. Intelligent Automation & Orchestration

"We streamline complex workflows across departments using RPA, AI/ML, and Infrastructure-as-Code — reducing manual effort and enabling faster, more reliable service delivery."

• Stress reducing friction, freeing human resources, and speeding outcomes.
• Reassure that automation is controlled and aligned with their architecture.

4. Seamless Integration & Low-Risk Deployment

"We specialize in deploying solutions within large, mission-critical environments without disrupting ongoing operations. Our phased implementation approach ensures compatibility with existing platforms such as ServiceNow, while maintaining continuous service delivery."

• Acknowledge their concern about disruption and frame your approach as deliberate, tested, and secure.

5. Actionable, End-to-End CX Measurement

"We deliver standardized, real-time metrics aligned with user-perceived experience, not just SLA compliance. Our dashboards and KPIs (CX Index, NPS, CES, CSAT) enable actionable, end-to-end visibility into the customer journey."

• Highlight ability to measure experience comprehensively across all touchpoints.

6. Proactive, Transparent Communication

"We enable proactive, CX-focused ITSM communication that keeps customers informed and engaged throughout their journey, enhancing trust and satisfaction."

• Show how your tools and processes improve customer perception of transparency and responsiveness.

7. Secure, Compliant, Responsible Data Management

"We implement robust security measures aligned with federal standards, including FedRAMP, FISMA, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidance. Our approach ensures customer data is encrypted, access is tightly controlled, vulnerabilities are managed, and incidents are swiftly resolved."

• Emphasize commitment to security and compliance.

8. Innovative & Future-Ready

"We bring emerging technologies such as AIOps, advanced analytics, and synthetic user testing to deliver a modern, resilient CX solution that anticipates customer needs and supports the mission well into the future."

• Position your solution as innovative but practical, aligned with their vision of a “CX Revolution.”

Suggested Tagline or Closing Message

“We partner with Customer to deliver proactive, data-driven, secure, and seamless customer experiences — ensuring mission success while setting a new standard for customer engagement.”

 

What ChatGPT gave me was a very good starting point for language to use in my answers to the RFI questions. I find the actionable guidance on what to highlight in each answer particularly helpful, especially for a team in a time crunch. However, the key piece that is missing for each strategy is the “how”—and since I used the free version of ChatGPT, I am certainly not going to input that into the chat. Instead, I’ll focus my time on:

• Validating that the strategies are accurate for my solution and adjusting the language as necessary. For example, the seventh strategy calls out the following federal standards: "We implement robust security measures aligned with federal standards, including FedRAMP, FISMA, and NIST guidance. Our approach ensures customer data is encrypted, access is tightly controlled, vulnerabilities are managed, and incidents are swiftly resolved." Note that the RFI did not call out these specific standards (so ChatGPT has not listed them out for compliance). Rather, ChatGPT came up with these as they are common federal security standards/frameworks. However, my company might not be FedRAMP certified, or I might not be proposing a cloud solution, so I may need to remove this reference to FedRAMP and replace it with something more relevant to my solution, like Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), or Risk Management Framework (RMF).
• My next step will be to answer the “how” for each messaging point. For example, we could add relevant solution tools to the following: “Using a custom suite of tools, including Dynatrace, Qualtrics XM Discover, and ServiceNow ITOM + ITSM, we eliminate the need for customers to act as sensors by delivering real-time, predictive insights into user experience. Our solution integrates synthetic monitoring, sentiment analysis, and operational data to proactively detect and address pain points before they impact users.”

It’s important to keep in mind that if your competitors are using AI tools to facilitate the RFI response, their messaging may look much like yours. To avoid this pitfall, make sure you adjust the language to meet your company’s branding style guide and make it different enough from the competition that you won’t get tossed to the side for presenting the exact same response as someone else.

Follow Up with the Customer to Schedule a Meeting to Understand their Pain Points Better

Remember that the RFI response shouldn’t be the end of your interaction with the customer until the solicitation release. A week or so after you submit the RFI, follow up with the customer to express your interest in the opportunity and see if they are open to a meeting or call to better understand their pain points.

Using the Hot Buttons, Generate Questions for the Discussion

You already have a good idea of some of the customer’s pain points based on the RFI. You can now use these data points to generate some follow-up questions to tackle during the meeting or call. Again, you can use ChatGPT as a starting point. Here is the output from my prompt (prompt: “Using the issues and hot buttons, generate a list of questions to ask the customer during a follow up meeting”):

Below is a list of targeted follow-up questions you can ask the customer in a meeting, structured around their key issues and hot buttons. These questions are designed to:

• Clarify their priorities and constraints
• Surface unspoken concerns
• Guide your solution design and messaging
• Position you as a thoughtful, mission-aligned partner

Category 1: Proactive CX and Monitoring

Goal: Understand their maturity and openness to predictive, sensorless monitoring.

1. How are you currently identifying negative service trends before customers report them?

2. What gaps do you see in your existing synthetic monitoring or experience scoring capabilities?

3. How important is predictive experience management versus reactive support in your long-term CX strategy?

4. Are there specific customer pain points you'd like to detect earlier using synthetic or passive monitoring techniques?

Category 2: Data Integration and Silo Reduction

Goal: Learn how open and feasible cross-departmental data sharing really is.

5. What are the current barriers to sharing customer experience-related data across your offices?

6. Which internal systems or tools must our solution integrate with (e.g., ServiceNow, Splunk, internal APIs)?

7. What level of data standardization or normalization do you currently have across monitoring and ITSM tools?

8. Do you have a central data lake or platform for CX-related metrics and telemetry?

Category 3: Automation, Orchestration & Workflow Optimization

Goal: Understand appetite for automation and where human bottlenecks exist.

9. Which business or IT processes are high-friction or still heavily manual that you’d like to automate first?

10. How do you see automation fitting into your Infrastructure-as-Code or CI/CD efforts?

11. What safeguards or controls would you require around AI/ML or RPA-driven actions?

Category 4: Integration and Disruption Mitigation

Goal: Get clarity on acceptable risk, legacy system constraints, and change appetite.

12. What types of disruptions have occurred during past tool implementations that we should be mindful of?

13. Are there legacy systems or compliance frameworks that restrict what we can integrate or replace?

14. Would you prefer a phased, modular deployment strategy or a full platform rollout?

15. How do you manage change adoption across geographically dispersed or matrixed teams?

Category 5: Experience Metrics and Success Measurement

Goal: Align on how they define and measure success.

16. What CX or UX metrics are most meaningful to your leadership today?

17. Are you looking to move toward real-time CX dashboards, or stick with periodic reporting?

18. How do you currently measure experience alignment with SLAs—and where do you see gaps?

Category 6: Proactive Communication and ITSM Integration

Goal: Understand how they communicate issues and how proactive they want to be.

19. What does “proactive communication” mean to your organization? Real-time updates? Predictive alerts?

20. How do you currently communicate outages or degraded experiences to users?

21. What experience do your teams have with ServiceNow’s experience modules or performance analytics?

Category 7: Security and Compliance Requirements

Goal: Confirm required frameworks, certifications, and audit expectations.

22. Which security standards are mandatory for any solution touching CX data (e.g., FedRAMP High, FISMA, DoD IL5)?

23. What are your expectations for data residency, encryption, and user access controls?

24. How would you like incident response and audit logging to be managed within CX toolsets?

Category 8: Innovation and Future Vision

Goal: Identify where they’re open to emerging tech or pilot programs.

25. Are you open to piloting newer technologies like AIOps, synthetic users, or LLM-based summarization for sentiment?

26. What does a “future-ready” CX program look like to you in 2–3 years?

27. How would you like to evolve beyond basic surveys and ticketing as your primary CX feedback channels?

 

As you would with your RFI response content, you’ll want to review and revise the questions to eliminate any hallucinations or errors (e.g., citing an obsolete standard or a tool that may not be part of your solution set). You should also remove any questions that may be problematic (for example, question 25 is: “Are you open to piloting newer technologies like AIOps, synthetic users, or LLM-based summarization for sentiment?” If these technologies are not part of your anticipated solution, you should remove it). And finally, add additional questions that may help shape your proposed solution. For example, if you’re thinking about implementing some specific technologies, you might ask the customer about their experience with or impressions of those solution elements.

Finally, we should also note that the above list is fairly extensive, so based on the amount of time you have secured for your discussion, you may need to prioritize questions or strategically choose questions based on the direction of the specific customer conversations.

Have a Few Relevant Solution Talking Points Ready

You should really go to the customer meeting ready to listen and learn!  However, it’s helpful to have a few talking points ready as well. For example, as a follow-up to the customer’s response to question 21 (What experience do your teams have with ServiceNow’s experience modules or performance analytics?), you might share a brief proof point on the benefits your past customer saw after your company implemented ServiceNow’s experience modules, and how this potential future customer might realize similar benefits through its use.

 

Final Thoughts

AI tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly effective accelerators during the RFI response processes, especially when time is short, teams are stretched thin, and the pressure to tailor messaging is high. In just a few prompts, I was able to extract the customer’s likely concerns, develop targeted messaging, and generate thoughtful questions to guide a follow-up conversation.

But here’s the key: AI should be your assistant, not your author. The real value comes from combining the speed and structure of generative AI with your unique solution insights, past performance, and customer knowledge. That’s where differentiation happens.

So, if you’re seeing a spike in RFIs—don’t just reuse boilerplate or generic AI content. Instead, use AI to quickly surface customer hot buttons, shape positioning, and brainstorm follow-up questions. Take time to validate, refine, and personalize that messaging for your unique solution. Follow up with the customer to deepen your understanding of their challenges and build a relationship beyond the RFI. And when possible, integrate customer voice into your response—through strategic questions, proof points, and relevant success stories.

This balance of speed, strategy, and personalization is what keeps your team competitive.

Now, go out there and turn those RFIs into future proposal wins!

Written by Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP
Senior Consultant and President
Proptimal Solutions, LLC
proptimalsolutions.com
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