Drafting answers to selection criteria

Give the tool the facts, then ask for the words. Do it the other way round and you'll get fluent text with nothing real in it.

Set up each criterion

A selection criterion is a question the buyer scores, such as "demonstrate your experience delivering similar work". Handle them one at a time. For each, give the tool:

• The criterion, word for word.
• The word or page limit.
• How it will be scored, if the tender says.
• Your facts for this criterion, pulled from your stored answers and facts.
• A plain instruction: use only the facts supplied, and say "no evidence provided" where there's a gap.

That last line matters. Without it, a tool may fill gaps with something that sounds right.

Why the gaps matter

Wikipedia calls it a hallucination when an AI gives false or misleading information as if it were fact.¹ The UK government note warns that facts or references from such tools can look plausible and still be false.²

A buyer reads your answer as a promise. So every number, date, client and credential in the draft has to be one you can stand behind.

Ask for structure, not polish

A first draft should be easy to check. Ask for:

• A direct answer in the first sentence.
• Then evidence: what you did, for whom, when and what came of it.
• Then how it applies to this buyer's job.

Use the buyer's own terms from the criterion, so the reader can match your answer to the question. If they ask about "risk management", don't call it "keeping things on track".

Make the draft true and specific

Read the draft with a pen. Each sentence gets one of four verdicts:

• Keep it because you can point to proof.
• Fix it because it's close but wrong.
• Make it specific by swapping "extensive experience" for the actual projects, dates and results from your records.
• Cut it because you can't prove it.

Look hardest at these:

• Numbers, percentages and timeframes.
• Named clients, referees and places.
• Standards, licences and certifications.
• Absolute words like "always" and "all". Buyers may hold you to them.

The National AI Centre notes that a tool may take your instruction in a different sense than you meant.³ So also ask whether the draft answers the actual question or a nearby one.

Put your own voice back

A tool's draft can read like anyone's. Yours should sound like your business. Replace stock phrases with how your team describes the job. Short sentences are fine, and plain words do the work.

Record the check

The UK example disclosure questions ask suppliers to confirm that AI-assisted responses "have been checked and verified for accuracy".² Whether or not your buyer asks, keep a note for each answer: who checked it, when, and against which record. If the buyer queries a claim later, you'll have the trail.

Australian guidance wants a person in charge of any AI in use.³ In a bid, that person signs off the answer.

When all drafts are in, run the whole response through checking a draft against the requirements.