This year the Qvidian team embarked on a crucial challenge: measuring the pulse of an industry changing rapidly due to advancements in artificial intelligence. As AI providers and well-versed proposal experts, we wanted to better understand how professionals across industries and the globe are implementing AI into their processes.

So, we rolled up our sleeves, hit the physical and digital pavement, and started asking professionals to give us their thoughts on AI. We collected all the results in our latest report: the 2025 AI Adoption in Proposal Management: Trends and Observations Report. We’re breaking down 5 key takeaways from the report, but you can dive deeper into the details by downloading your digital copy of the full report here

1. Curiosity, excitement reign supreme

Changes in technology can be frightening and frustrating. When conducting our AI Trends and Observation Report, we wanted to do more than just ask professionals what they wanted; we also wanted to understand how they’re feeling about AI. So, we asked them two key questions:

• How did you feel about AI when you first heard about it?
• How do you feel about AI now, as you’re taking this survey?

We’ll be honest: we expected some negative emotions. After all, we’ve all struggled with the highs and lows of implementing a new workplace technology! Instead, we got a different picture. While some individuals did express feeling nervous, concerned, or alert when they first heard about AI, the majority of respondents were curious and excited.

Even better, when we asked about their current emotions, those feelings of concern dropped by 10% while other emotions like happiness and relaxed jumped up by 7% and 2%, respectively.

2. Benefits first, features second

As providers of proposal automation software with AI features, we’ll admit: we selfishly wanted to know what professionals are looking for when they’re making AI purchases. We had our personal hunches that too often vendors are overly focused on selling features while neglecting to explain the benefits of each feature.

We hate to toot our own horn, but turns out we were right! When we asked respondents to rank what AI vendors should be focused on when selling AI, they ranked Benefits first, with features coming in a close second. This may seem obvious, but it highlights a crucial fact: professionals are invested in real world results, not fancy features. Before purchasing and implementing any AI, they want to be clear that it will benefit their organization, personal workflow, or overall output.

3. Organization-wide adoption

As pioneers in the proposal automation industry, we’ve seen a lot of technological changes come and go throughout the ages. When we first heard about AI, we wondered internally whether the industry would be quick or slow to implement AI into their process.

In our survey we asked hundreds of respondents across the globe to let us know which departments in their organization have already implemented AI. We expected to see some movement from bids and proposal teams but weren’t 100% sure what other trends we’d notice. Shockingly (or not if you’ve been following the news), most respondents indicated that multiple teams or their entire organization was using AI in some shape, form, or fashion.

4. Security is key

One key finding we found repeatedly in our report: data security and property ownership are crucial to AI-implementation. Respondents expressed a lot of concern over how their data and content is used with AI. Many respondents didn’t want their corporate content used to train AI models while others noted that, for their industry, keeping data confidential and secure was not just a priority but a critical necessity.

Professionals are looking for AI-models that aren’t pulling from unreliable sources or using their data to train future models. They want to own their AI-generated outputs and use them strategically to get a leg up on the competition. Just the same, they’re wary of new technologies that have untested or verified data security protocols. In fact, procurement teams listed data security as the top concern when they’re thinking of implementing AI into their workforce!

5. Professionals are looking for more than speed

Let’s be real here: a lot of AI talk focuses on getting things done faster than before. For good reason too! Professionals are busier than ever and saddled with a seemingly never-ending workload that makes Sisyphus’ boulder-pushing seem easy. But, while we found that most respondents ranked Acceleration as the number one tactical outcome they’d like to achieve by implementing AI, it was followed tightly behind by Accuracy.

Sure, professionals are looking for ways to speed up the proposal process, but they’re also looking for ways to make checking for errors, inconsistencies, and compliance issues easier than before. This makes a whole lot of sense to us, as these tasks are the most time and resource-intensive ones of the proposal process! AI that’s able to help enhance the overall quality and reliability of proposals is sure to be a game-changer.

A global perspective on AI Implementation

The rapid adoption of AI in the bids and proposal industry is absolutely revolutionizing how organizations approach efficiency, accuracy, and long-term strategic decision making. These are just some of the many facts and figures we explored in our full 2025 2025 AI Adoption in Proposal Management: Trends and Observations Report. To view the full report and get a larger picture of how AI is impacting the proposal industry, download your copy here.