Top of the morning to you! Qvidian just spent a glorious two days in Dublin, Ireland this March networking with fellow bid and proposal professionals from around Europe and beyond at APMP’s BPC Dublin 2025. We’re here to wrap up our time there and highlight some of the many takeaways from this industry event.  

March’s conference was great, with professionals continuing their trend of AI enthusiasm, curiosity, and some healthy skepticism. As we talked through the common concerns professionals had, one thing kept coming up repeatedly: we’re crunched for time, and we don’t know what to do about it! 

Takeaway 1: we’re all crunched for time 

We’re putting this as our number one takeaway, but it should be crystal clear to anyone in the industry: everyone’s crunched for time! Automation has made work easier, but still the pressure to respond and produce more and more winning proposals is higher than ever. 

Professionals need a way to reduce time spent on manual tasks before they’re too burnt out to keep going. They’re looking for things like automatic answering, AI analysis, revising and rewriting, and key integrations with existing software—basically, anything that saves them time and helps them win more by focusing time on more valuable things! 

Takeaway 2: AI is crowding the market. Useful AI is critical. 

As more software companies integrate AI into their products, professionals have started to feel overwhelmed with choice. Every piece of software seems to have some form of AI agent embedded in it, leaving many to ask: Which provider should we choose? 

Qvidian’s AI philosophy is about integrating useful and purposeful tools into our professionals’ workflow. We’re using our nearly 50 years of experience in the industry to ask critical questions about when and why professionals use AI and then build our features to tackle those concerns and create business outcomes.  

It might seem obvious, but the key to industry-leading AI going forward revolves around its usefulness to the overall process. Rather than replacing humans completely, professionals want a tool that works with their existing content, produces trustworthy and reliable content, and gives them the flexibility they need to get work done.
 

Takeaway 3: AI is useful, but it isn’t magical. 

Everyone knows by now that Artificial Intelligence is the latest and greatest trend. Still, now that it’s ubiquitous and professionals have used it more, its true usefulness is becoming clear.  

Professionals are rejecting the idea of a magical AI solution in favor of artificial intelligence purposefully built into their workflows. Put simply, professionals are not expecting to press one big RFP response button and be done. They are, however, looking to integrate AI tools for brainstorming, analyzing, revising, rewriting, reviewing, and speeding up work without tossing the human out completely.  

Takeaway 4: Persuasion is still the name of the game. 

Our session on persuasive writing was a big hit and proved to us – and a standing room only audience – that writing persuasively is still the biggest goal for professionals. While it’s easy to lock into new technologies and trends, it’s also important to always stay tethered to the fundamentals of proposal writing.  

Bid and Proposal professionals are still tackling the same challenges they encountered when we created the RFP and proposal automation industry some 50 years ago. Their goal is to use new technologies and advances in automation to make their persuasive writing even better, resulting in more won business. Professionals are looking for features like: 

• Revising and rewriting content using AI 

• Automatic answering to suggest the best fitting content 

• Automation to save time on routine and manual tasks 

• Advanced analytics to drill down on content wins 

• Querying with AI to quickly analyze informational documents for personalization options. 

Takeaway 5: Professionalism, experience, and maturity rule the day. 

One growing trend we’re noticing in the bids and proposals industry is the ever-increasing desire for companies with experience, professionalism, and maturity. This comes as no surprise to us as the rapid evolution of AI and technology has made the RFP and proposal automation industry a rather crowded space. With new companies sprouting up all the time, professionals are constantly evaluating all their options. What ends up winning out? Maturity, experience, and staying power 

Companies with deeply ingrained experience and industry knowledge, like Qvidian, are better able to set their customers up for success. Why? They’re not just building new product features and shiny user interfaces; they’re selectively choosing features that solve real-world problems professionals face. Additionally, given the speed at which AI is advancing, professionals are looking for technology partners who have the deep knowledge needed to explain AI, implement it properly, and make it useful for the proposal process. 

Our next stop: BPC Nashville 

Refreshed from our time in the Emerald Isle (and a couple of good pints of Guinness) and more committed than ever, we’re hitting the road throughout the year to spread the word about Qvidian’s powerful software and services for RFP and proposal automation. Our next big industry stop has us hitting the old country road straight to the Music City to join industry professionals at APMP’s BPC Nashville 2025.  

During the conference we’ll be on-hand to highlight our chart-topping automation, network with professionals, and host three amazing sessions for conference attendees. We hope you’ll join us, but if not, you can always book a demo to learn more about Qvidian or keep an eye on our blog where we’ll be wrapping up our takeaways from this key industry event!