How to Make Your Proposals Machine-Readable – and Why You Need To in 2025

By Chip Schaller, Chief of Capture and Proposals

Individual governments publish tens of thousands of contracts every year.^[1] And in the US federal space, an average of 3.4 vendors compete per awarded contract.^[2] That’s a lot of proposal documents for procurement teams to review.

It’s no surprise, then, that procurement professionals are turning to tech to help select the right suppliers. And with artificial intelligence (AI) having made huge leaps forward in recent years, we’re seeing a marked increase in its use by procuring organizations to screen incoming proposals.

How proposals are machine-screened by AI tools

The typical scenario will see AI-enabled software used for an initial assessment of each response, to check it meets certain criteria. The US Government’s Solicitation Review Tool (SRT), for example, helps agencies evaluate vendors’ compliance with accessibility, cybersecurity, and other requirements and regulations.^[3] There are various AI-powered commercial products available as well, performing similar tasks.

Depending on the procuring organization’s process, proposals deemed non-compliant by the software may simply be flagged as such, or they may be disqualified entirely, without being looked at by a human evaluator.

It’s essential to make sure your proposal ends up in the correct pile—and that means making it machine-readable.

How to make your proposals machine-readable

A machine-readable proposal is one where AI can quickly and accurately understand and interpret the content – so that the validation tools can correctly determine whether you’ve met the criteria.

Here are five things every proposal writer and manager need to know about making your documents readable by AI-powered assessment software.

Table of Contents

1. **Understand all the RFP requirements**

To produce a proposal that will pass your prospect’s AI-driven assessment, you first need to understand all the RFP’s requirements.

Rather than asking your team to spend days trawling through RFP documents and appendices, use AutogenAI’s Extractor to quickly shred long and complex RFPs, pull out the requirements you need to meet, and facilitate development of your compliant proposal outline.

AutogenAI’s Gamma Review helps writers and reviewers check responses against these requirements directly within the proposal editor, serving as both a time-saver and a safeguard for compliance issues.

2. Provide clear structure

Even where proposal review software uses the latest natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, feeding it well-structured data will maximize your chances of success. Make sure your documents comply with the RFP organization’s formatting requirements and clearly indicate which content belongs where.

Clear signposting, like section and paragraph numbers, helps organize content effectively. Keep formatting consistent for elements like image captions and pull-out quotes. This makes it easier for both assessment software and human reviewers to find key information.

3. Align with the RFP’s requirements and terminology

Since assessment software scans for specific topics, keywords, and phrases, structure your proposal accordingly. Align your content with the RFP documents and scoring matrix to cover all the requirements identified in step 1.

Mirror the exact language of the RFP in your response, even if it differs from your internal terminology. This is particularly important when competing for a contract with a specific agency or department, as each may use unique

terminology and references for key performance elements of the contract.

For example, one of the requirements may be to provide a ‘Site Safety and Security Plan’ covering a specified list of topics. Use this exact phrase as the main section heading and include lower-level headings for each sub-topic. This will make it easy for the software to spot, so that it’s clear you’ve included the necessary content.

4. Make your images machine-readable

Most proposals will use images such as graphs, annotated diagrams, and photos to showcase the value of the proposed solution. While these pictures might tell a thousand words to most people, they tell precisely zero to an automated proposal assessment tool.

All data in graphics needs to be presented in an alternative, text-based format to ensure accessibility and machine scoring readiness. Graphs should include corresponding tables and diagram annotations can be provided as numbered lists with clear headings. Alt text for images is essential—it highlights key points and reinforces the narrative. This not only supports automated evaluation, but also reflects best practice for clear, comprehensive proposal development.

5. Ensure proposal review software can access your proposal content

In addition to making your proposal machine-readable, these practices are key to meeting Section 508 compliance standards, making it accessible to all evaluators, including those using assistive technologies like screen readers. By providing alternative formats for graphics, detailed annotations, and alt text, you make it easier for visually impaired reviewers to assess your proposal. This dual benefit of enhanced machine readability and improved human accessibility can significantly increase your chances of success.

Last but not least, the exceptional, well-structured proposal content you’ve created needs to be in a form the software can understand.

Make sure your text is searchable. If you’re PDFing final documents, check that text isn’t inadvertently turned into images, which a machine may not be able to parse. Your choice of font is critical: if the RFP doesn’t mandate a specific typeface, prioritize clarity by using a clean, professional sans serif font like Arial. This ensures maximum readability and demonstrates attention to detail – key factors in leaving a positive impression on evaluators.

And if you’re in the practice of password-protecting your proposal documents before submission, check whether the procuring agency has any requirements around this. Can its assessment software open files that require a password, or will it simply reject these?

Helping you succeed in an era of AI-driven proposal evaluation

Procurement teams face increasing pressure to do more with less while still delivering exceptional value. As a result, AI-powered proposal review tools—which free up human evaluators to focus on the core of each proposal—will become even more important in the years ahead.

For you as a sales or proposal professional, making sure that the great work you’re doing is machine-readable will maximize your chances of succeeding when it’s reviewed by AI-driven tools.

^[1] https://www.finance.gov.au/government/procurement/statistics-australian-government-procurement-contracts-

^[2] https://www.highergov.com/reports/765b-federal-gov-contract-awards-2023/?ref=os

^[3] https://srt.app.cloud.gov/auth

Other Categories: Proposal Writing