On completion of the training programme, participants will:

• Use AI to break down an RFT and pull out the buyer’s evaluation framework, weightings, mandatory requirements and priorities before writing a word.
• Apply AI to bid/no-bid decisions, assessing fit, effort and win likelihood against the buyer’s criteria.
• Use AI to carry out market and competitor research from published award data, and turn the findings into win themes and discriminators.
• Build AI-assisted compliance checks that catch the failures that disqualify bids before quality is ever judged.
• Draft and improve responses with AI while avoiding the generic, uncommitted language evaluators mark down, including closing the describe-to-guarantee gap with committed, evidenced outcomes.
• Use AI as a structured pre-submission reviewer: score drafts against the six lenses public sector panels use (Compliance, Delivery, Commercial, Value, Innovation, Strategy) and identify the gaps that cost marks. This is the step that moves average scores from 73% to 90%+.
• Use AI responsibly in tendering, covering confidentiality of tender documents, GDPR, accuracy checking, and buyer rules on AI-generated content.

Upskill SME Training Grant

To qualify, businesses must:

• Be a commercial business registered in the Republic of Ireland, operating for more than 12 months and tax compliant.
• Meet the EU SME definition: fewer than 250 employees and annual turnover up to €50 million or a balance sheet total up to €43 million, including relevant linked or partner company figures.
• Meet applicable De Minimis State Aid requirements.
• Ensure employees attend all 4 sessions.
• Register on the scheme portal and submit a claim following training. (Dundalk Chamber Skillnet will provide additional details on the process)

The Upskill SME Training Grant supports commercial SMEs, and therefore the following types of companies are ineligible for grant aid under this scheme:
• Companies which do not meet the stated SME eligibility criteria
• Public sector bodies
• Non-Government bodies (Charity or not-for-profit organisations)
• Companies based outside the Republic of Ireland
• Sole Traders

This course is best suited to anyone involved in tendering for contracts.

1. AI and the evaluation panel. How bids are actually marked: rubrics, weightings, moderation, and where marks are lost. How buyers and evaluators are now using AI. Responsible-use principles for suppliers.
2. AI-assisted RFT analysis and bid/no-bid. Using structured AI prompts to extract criteria, weightings, hot buttons, mandatory requirements and required documents. Turning that into an evidence-based bid/no-bid decision and response plan.
3. AI for market and competitor intelligence. Mining award notices and procurement data to see who wins what, at what value, and against which buyers. Profiling incumbents and competitors. Building win themes that a competitor couldn’t copy.
4. AI-driven compliance checking. Automating compliance matrices and checks for page limits, mandatory documents, declarations and pricing reconciliation.
5. Drafting with AI, without sounding like AI. Prompting against the buyer’s scoring rubric. Replacing capability descriptions with committed, evidenced answers. Strengthening case studies, CVs and proof points. Spotting and removing the tell-tale signs of unedited AI drafting.
6. AI as your evaluation panel. A structured AI review process: self-scoring against the six evaluation lenses, gap analysis and predicted scoring. Includes a live AI evaluation of a participant tender.
7. Building your AI tender workflow. Putting it together into a repeatable process: tool choices, prompt library, quality controls, team adoption, and a personal action plan for the next submission.