How to respond to a government RFP with AI: compliance matrix first, then the proposal

How a federal solicitation is organised

Most US federal RFPs follow the uniform contract format set in FAR 15.204-1: thirteen sections, A through M. Three of them decide your response. Section C describes the work. Section L, Instructions, conditions and notices to offerors, tells you exactly how to build the proposal. Section M, Evaluation factors for award, tells you how it will be scored.

State and city solicitations, and tenders outside the US, use different labels for the same three ideas: the scope of work, the submission instructions and the evaluation criteria. Find those three first, whatever they are called.

Before you write: registration and the bid decision

To compete for federal awards as a prime, your entity needs an active SAM.gov registration, which must be renewed every 365 days. Check it early; a lapsed registration is a reason not to bid, not a detail to fix on the due date.

Then make an honest bid decision. Can you do the work at the scale described? Do you have past performance that matches it? Can you meet the page limits with real substance? Ask Draimo to summarise the scope, the period of performance, the mandatory qualifications and the evaluation weighting on one page, so the decision rests on the solicitation rather than its title.

Build the compliance matrix

The compliance matrix is the most valuable hour in any proposal. It lists every requirement in the solicitation, its section number, and where your proposal answers it. Evaluators score against the solicitation's own words, and a requirement you missed scores nothing however well the rest is written.

This is where AI saves the most time. Attach the RFP and ask for every shall, must and will statement, numbered to match the RFP's own structure. Then ask the second question every experienced writer asks: what does Section M score that Section L never tells us to submit? Those gaps are where proposals quietly lose points. Read the matrix against the RFP yourself; the matrix is only as good as its last check.

Write to the evaluation, not to the scope

A response that restates the scope of work tells the evaluator nothing. Each section should do three things: show that you understand the requirement, say specifically how you will meet it, and give the evidence that you can, such as a staffing plan, a method, a past contract of similar size.

Use the solicitation's own words and numbering in your headings, so the evaluator finds each answer where they expect it. Ask Draimo to draft each technical section from your method notes and the matching matrix rows, then ask it to point out every sentence that makes a claim without evidence.

Past performance and the price volume

Past performance is scored on relevance: similar scope, size and complexity, and recent. Keep a short record of each past contract, with the customer, the value, the period, the scope and a reference, in your project. Draimo can then match the right two or three to each solicitation and write each summary to the relevance criteria.

Your price volume must match the line items in Section B exactly. When you build the pricing tables in a Draimo document, percentage lines such as overhead and fee, and the totals, are recomputed, so the arithmetic in the submitted file reconciles. The rates themselves are your business decision.

The rules that disqualify

Section L is pass or fail before any content is read. Check every one of these against the solicitation, including any amendments issued after release:

• Page limits for each volume, and what counts towards them.
• Font, size, margins and line spacing. Ask Draimo for the exact settings when you request the document.
• Volume structure, file format and file names.
• Required forms, certifications and signatures.
• Acknowledgement of every amendment.
• The due date, time and time zone, and the submission method.

How to do it with Draimo

See the finished shape first: this eleven-page federal RFP response for janitorial services in a Denver office building was made on Draimo, and its gallery page shows the prompt that produced it.

1. Create a project for the bid and attach the RFP and any amendments.
2. Ask for a one-page summary and the compliance matrix, then check it against the RFP.
3. Make the bid decision.
4. Draft each volume against the matrix, with the exact formatting from Section L.
5. Edit in plain words, and ask for a final pass that checks every matrix row has an answer.
6. Download the files, review them as an evaluator would, and submit on time.

State, local and international tenders

The same method works for a city cleaning contract, a state IT procurement or a public tender abroad. Draimo's gallery includes a City of Tshwane tender for solar backup at 12 clinics, a Kenyan county bid and a Swedish municipal tender written in Swedish. The labels change; the reading, the matrix and writing to the scoring do not.

Sources we checked

• FAR 15.204-1, Uniform contract format
• SAM.gov: entity registration

Checked October 21, 2026. Dates and amounts change every year. Ask Draimo for this year's figures, grounded in official sources.