Writing and editing your response

In this article

• Before you start
• Step 1: Brief the section in the storyboard
• Step 2: Generate your first draft
• Step 3: Refine with the assistant
• Step 4: Polish in the editor
• Step 5: Check the section before you mark it complete
• Four habits that get better answers
• Prompts to try while drafting
• Drafting prompts worth saving
• Models
• Editor panels
• Transformations
• If something isn’t working

Before you start

Drafting works best when the project is already set up, because everything you have done so far becomes context for the AI. Before you draft, make sure you have:

• Created a project and uploaded the RFP documents.
• Built the project library, connecting the knowledge hub folders and documents relevant to this proposal.
• Reviewed and approved the master response outline in the write phase.
• Assigned each section to the person writing it.

Once the outline is approved, AutogenAI creates a storyboard for every section and fills it in from the RFP documents.

Step 1: Brief the section in the storyboard

The storyboard is the brief for your section. The more relevant detail you give it, the more complete your first draft will be. The recommended approach is to spend 10 minutes or more here before you generate anything.

Open your section from the write phase. The storyboard sits in the right-hand panel, above the assistant, and is already filled in for you: the question, requirements, evaluation criteria and win plan are pulled from the RFP documents. Your main job is to give it your direction for the solution and point it at the right evidence.

Work down the storyboard from top to bottom:

1. Check what’s pre-filled. Confirm the word, character or page limit in Writer’s Assignment. Skim the Requirements and Win Plan, deleting anything that doesn’t apply to this section (for example, “submit in Word format”) and adding anything missing.
2. Add your direction in Key Context and Notes. This is where you shape the answer: your ideas for the solution, the approach you want to take, and any notes from colleagues or subject matter experts (SMEs). Information here takes priority over everything else when the draft is generated.
3. Link your best evidence in Enhance Your Draft with Evidence. Use the paperclip to attach the most relevant files from the project library, such as past proposals, case studies or methodology documents. This is one of the biggest factors in getting a relevant, specific draft. A few strong files work better than many loosely related ones.

What to put in Key Context and Notes

Put your specifics in this box, not just your instructions:

• Meeting notes and input from subject matter experts
• Your solution design, delivery team and delivery locations
• Key numbers, such as key performance indicators (KPIs)
• How you want the answer structured, for example “Lead with our safety record, then cover the delivery plan.”

Facts you add here (names, roles, systems, figures, dates) are used in the draft. Instructions about tone, emphasis and structure are followed but don’t appear as text. If the customer requires a specific table format, paste it here and the draft will follow its structure.

Tip: If you leave Enhance Your Draft with Evidence blank, AutogenAI looks for supporting points across the whole project library. If the library holds content for several customers or business areas, attach specific files so content doesn’t get mixed.

Step 2: Generate your first draft

When your storyboard is ready, select Generate first draft. AutogenAI builds the draft from your storyboard and opens it in the editor. Generation can take up to 5 minutes.

Read your first draft

Placeholders are intentional. Where a detail can’t be found in your evidence or notes, such as a name, date, figure or credential, the draft marks it with an [INSERT: …] placeholder instead of guessing. Fill it in directly, or add the detail to Key Context and Notes and regenerate.

Check where it came from. Open the Sources panel from the right-hand icons to see the documents the draft drew on.

Each section is drafted on its own. A draft can’t see the other sections, so the same case study may appear in more than one. You check for this in step 5.

Regenerate or refine?

Tip: Already storyboarded outside AutogenAI, for example in your own template? Upload the approved storyboard to the project library, attach it with the paperclip or name it in Key Context and Notes, then generate. The draft will follow it.

Step 3: Refine with the assistant

The assistant is the quickest way to refine a draft. Ask it to rework a section, weave in evidence from the library, or check your answer against the criteria, and it can edit your document for you to accept or reject. You can also use it without generating a first draft at all.

When you open a section in the write phase, the assistant sits below your storyboard, next to your draft. It can already see the bid question, the requirements, the evaluation criteria and the text you’ve written, plus the project library. You can ask about “this section” without re-explaining the opportunity each time.

To open it, select the assistant icon on the right, or highlight text and select Edit with Assistant.

Get the answer where you want it

The assistant can either reply in the panel or edit your document directly, where you accept or reject the change. If it does the opposite of what you wanted, just say so: “Edit my document directly” or “Give me this in the panel instead.”

Your conversations are saved. Select Back to sessions at the top of the assistant to pick up where you left off.

Point the assistant at the right sources

Source providers decide what Ask AI, the evidencing transformations and the assistant draw on. Setting them well is the quickest way to get specific, evidenced content rather than generic text.

Inside a project, your choices are the project library and web search. If there is a knowledge hub library you want to use, connect it to the project library first.

The project library holds everything specific to this proposal:

• The RFP documents from the customer
• AI activity outputs, such as pre-proposal activities and prepare and plan phase documents
• Anything else you have uploaded or connected to the project

To set source providers:

1. In the editor, open the write panel (or the assistant) and select the source providers filter at the top right.
2. In the project library, narrow down to a whole folder, a single document or any combination.
3. For web search, turn on the whole web, restrict it to specific websites, or exclude sites you don’t want searched (for example, LinkedIn or Wikipedia).
4. Select Apply changes.

For a one-off source, you can also upload a document directly from your computer.

Note: Source providers are set at the point of use. They don’t carry over between sessions, or between the assistant and Ask AI, so check them each time.

Tip: Narrow your sources. Set source providers to the folder or documents that matter. Pointing at one folder gets you specific, evidenced detail. Pointing at everything gets you something generic.

Reuse a prompt across sections

If you find yourself typing the same request into the assistant on every section, save it once and insert it whenever you need it. This keeps quality consistent across writers and saves rebuilding long prompts.

For example, your team always strengthens drafts with a relevant case study. Save a prompt such as “Find the most relevant case study in our library for this section and weave a short example into the response, keeping within the word limit.” Then, in each section, open the assistant, set source providers to your case study folder, insert the saved prompt and send it.

Use a saved prompt in your section

1. Open the assistant in your section and select the saved prompts icon in the prompt box.
2. Choose a prompt. The list shows your own prompts plus any shared with your organization.
3. Edit the text if needed, for example to swap in the customer’s name or a project, then send it.

Save a prompt that worked

After you send a prompt, select the save icon next to it, enter a short, specific title and select Save. The save icon only appears after a prompt is sent. You can also create prompts from scratch in Knowledge Hub > Saved Prompts > New Prompt.

If you hold the document manager role, you can share a prompt you created with your whole organization by turning on Share with organization.

Tip: Give prompts from the same workflow the same title prefix (for example “Draft –”), so one search finds them all. Search matches the prompt text as well as the title.

Step 4: Polish in the editor

Once your sources are set and the assistant has helped with the bigger changes, use the editor’s quick tools to polish the wording, length and evidence of your draft.

The document sits on the left. A strip of icons on the right edge switches between panels. For what each panel does, see Editor panels.

Ask for something specific with Ask AI

For a quick, targeted rewrite of selected text, type your own instruction into Ask AI at the top of the write panel, for example “Rewrite this paragraph to lead with the outcome for the customer.” To control what it draws on, see Point the Assistant at the right sources.

Make quick edits with transformations

Transformations are one-click edits. Highlight the text you want to change, then choose a transformation from the floating toolbar or the Write panel. Review the result, then accept it or undo and try another. For the full list, see Transformations.

Tip: Made a change you regret? Open the three dots at the top of the document and select the document history clock to see who changed what and restore an earlier version.

Step 5: Check the section before you mark it complete

Before you mark a section complete, check that:

• Every [INSERT: …] placeholder is filled
• The draft is within the word, character or page limit
• It answers every requirement and evaluation criterion in the storyboard
• Case studies aren’t repeated in other sections
• You’ve updated the section status (statuses don’t update automatically)

Four habits that get better answers

• Narrow your sources. See Point the Assistant at the right sources.
• One job per prompt. Three questions in one message usually get a shallow answer to all three.
• Say what good looks like. Give the format and length, and say whether you want a table or citations.
• Use the past tense for evidence. “What we delivered at [project]” keeps answers grounded in what actually happened.

Tip: If an answer is thin, add sources before you rewrite the prompt. It’s nearly always the material, not the wording.

Prompts to try while drafting

Drafting prompts worth saving

• A prompt that turns a completed storyboard into a first draft in your preferred tone and structure.
• A scoring prompt, for example: “Review this response against the evaluation criteria. Be critical. Give it a score and tell me exactly what to change, and where, to achieve full marks.”
• A prompt for actioning reviewer feedback without removing key content.
• A prompt that finds the [INSERT: …] placeholders in a draft and writes a briefing email asking a subject matter expert for what’s missing.

Models

Research is the default and handles most drafting tasks. Pro is more thorough but slower and more verbose, so save it for complex questions.

Editor panels

Transformations

Evidencing transformations are marked Yes in the table. For what they draw on, see Point the assistant at the right sources. Editing transformations, marked No, work only on the text you selected.

If something isn’t working