A couple of weeks ago, two RFPs landed in my inbox within a few days of one another. Both were for website redesigns, both from respected organizations in completely different industries. As I read through them, I couldn’t shake the feeling of déjà vu — the structure, the phrasing, even the bullet points were nearly identical. Out of curiosity, I asked AI to generate an outline for a website redesign RFP. What came back was almost word-for-word what I had just read. That’s when it hit me: these organizations hadn’t written their RFPs — AI had.
I get it. Things are moving fast. Everyone’s expected to do more with less, and tools like AI promise a quick way to check a box, meet a deadline, and keep the process moving. But when an organization hands over something as foundational as an RFP to a machine, it skips the most important part: the thinking. Cognitively offloading this process means you don’t stop to consider what makes your situation unique, like the real problems your new site needs to solve, or the specific goals it should help you reach.
An RFP isn’t just a task list; it’s a reflection of your priorities, your culture, and your aspirations. It’s an opportunity to align your internal stakeholders, to think critically about what’s working and what’s not, and to articulate how your digital presence supports your mission. When AI writes that for you, it can’t possibly capture your voice, your technical realities, or the nuances of how your systems and people work together. You end up with something that sounds professional, but lacks purpose.
Don’t get me wrong — we use AI, too. It helps us with copy editing, refining language, and sharpening messaging. But our strategists, writers, project leads, and proposal writers, the humans who bring empathy, creativity, and context, are the ones who shape the thinking. That’s what makes a proposal authentic and effective. After all, you wouldn’t want your agency creating its proposal using AI, would you?
