Every vendor’s accuracy numbers come from their best-case dataset. The only number that counts is what the tool does on your data, with your team. The most expensive mistake in this space is an annual contract for a tool that solves the wrong problem.
Not a demo, not a sandbox. A real pilot on a real proposal. Use your data: past proposals, your RFP, your templates. Use your team, meaning the people who’ll actually run it daily, not just the champion. Time-box it to two to four weeks, long enough to learn and short enough to kill. Pick two or three success metrics before you start, not after. And run parallel tracks: the same task with and without AI, compared honestly.
The hard part isn’t the model. It’s adoption. Writers resist, and not out of stubbornness; they’re protective of quality. Earn their trust on the Dull tasks first, because nobody fights you on automating tedium. Leaders want ROI yesterday, so set expectations: a pilot in weeks, measurable results in two to three months, scaled adoption in six to twelve. And a champion beats a training program. One person who uses the tool daily and helps others will outperform any formal rollout.
A small team of five to fifteen should buy or DIY. Off-the-shelf models plus good prompts get you far, one champion can drive adoption, and the budget runs in the hundreds to low thousands a month. A large team of fifty-plus can justify a platform, but then governance, security review, and change management are the project. Pilot with one team and expand through champions, with “amplify, not replace” as the message. Don’t buy the enterprise answer for a five-person problem.
Six criteria. Quality and adoption are dealbreakers; a tool the team won’t use fails no matter how fast it is.
Score all six (0/6). Run the pilot on your data, your team, 2–4 weeks, parallel tracks — then score it honestly here before you sign anything.
Before your next tool decision, write down two or three success metrics. Run a 2-week pilot on a real bid with the people who’ll actually use it, then come back and score it here.
One real bid, fixed fee, 72 hours: the honest version of a pilot. If it earns it, the fee credits toward a subscription.