Creating a new project

In this article

• Overview
• Before you begin
• Creating a new project
• Finding your way around the Project Home
• Phase 1: Pre-proposal
• Phase 2: Prepare & plan
• Phase 3: Write
• How your Project Library connects the phases
• Best practices
• Summary

Overview

A project is your workspace for a single proposal: set it up once, and everything from first qualification to final export lives in one place.

It holds your RFP documents, your team, your source library, and every response you write, all organized by proposal stage. Creating a project takes a few minutes. The real work then happens in the project home, which moves you through three phases:

1. Pre-proposal – decide whether the opportunity is worth pursuing
2. Prepare & plan – build the response framework before anyone starts writing
3. Write – turn the framework into a reviewed, export-ready draft

This guide walks through each step.

Smart workflows: how AutogenAI chooses your workflow

When you upload your RFP, smart workflows analyzes it and automatically selects the workflow that best fits your RFP.

• Smart questions – for RFPs made up of standalone questions that each need an individual answer. This is the most common workflow, covering roughly 90–95% of proposal opportunities.
• Smart requirements – for open-ended RFPs with no standalone questions, where you respond to the RFP pack or a problem statement as a whole.

There's nothing to configure: the choice is made from the documents you upload.

Before you begin

A few minutes of preparation makes setup faster and gives the AI better context from the start. Have these ready:

• Your RFP documents. The full RFP pack, including any annexes, pricing sheets, or supporting files. Each file can be up to 2 GB.
• Your submission deadline. Optional at setup, but worth having on hand.
• Source material (optional). Past proposals, case studies, policies, or other evidence you want the AI to draw on. You can upload files or connect existing libraries from your knowledge hub.

Supported file types

AutogenAI accepts a wide range of formats, so you rarely need to convert anything before uploading:

Tip: Upload everything the buyer issued, not just the main questionnaire. The more complete the RFP pack, the more complete the analysis the AI runs on it (see Step 3: Upload your RFP).

Creating a new project

The setup wizard takes you through a handful of short steps. You can create a project from the Projects tab, or by selecting Create new project from the AutogenAI homepage.

Step 1: Open projects

Use the left navigation panel to open the Projects page. This page lists your existing projects and is where you start a new one.

Step 2: Name your project

Click the New project button and enter a project name, then select Next.

Choose something your team will recognize at a glance. A buyer name plus the opportunity title works well, especially once you have several projects running at once.

Step 3: Upload your RFP

Drag and drop your RFP documents into the upload area, or browse to select files.

Once uploaded, the AI analyzes your documents to extract requirements, questions, a compliance matrix, and more. It also uses them to choose the right workflow for your RFP (see Smart workflows: how AutogenAI chooses your workflow).

Step 4: Set your submission deadline

Pick the date your proposal is due. If you don't have it yet, select Skip for now and add it later.

Step 5: Build your project library

Give the AI more context by:

• Uploading files directly to the project
• Connecting existing libraries from your knowledge hub

This context is used to generate content such as your storyboard in the write phase. You can also skip this step and add sources at any time from the project library.

Step 6: Review and finish

The summary screen shows your project name, RFP files, and submission deadline. Check the details, then select Finish.

You'll land in the project home, ready to start working.

Quick reference

Finding your way around the project home

Project home is your home base for the proposal. Everything is organized by proposal stage, so you always know where you are and what comes next.

The left-hand panel contains:

• Phases – Pre-proposal, Prepare & plan, and Write
• Project library – all source documents and generated content for this bid
• Project admin – project-level settings
• Pinned – quick access to the activities you've pinned for easy reference

Selecting a phase opens the activities that belong to that point in the proposal. Work through them in order, or jump to whichever you need.

Tip: Pin the activities you return to most, such as your win themes or compliance matrix, so they're one click away while you write.

Phase 1: Pre-proposal

Pre-proposal helps you qualify the opportunity before you commit your team to bidding. It's optional, but it's the right place to pressure-test whether this is a bid you can win.

Add relevant documents to your project library, then generate any of the following activities:

How to use this phase

• Start with the opportunity overview to get a fast read on the RFP before going deeper.
• Use the bid/no-bid gate review package when you need to bring a decision to leadership.
• Skip it when the decision's already made. If you've already committed to the proposal, move straight to the prepare & plan phase.

Every activity you generate is saved automatically to your project library. That means your competitor and capture work can feed directly into later activities, so the thinking you do here carries through to the draft.

The recommended order

Each step is designed so the decision it supports is grounded in the output of the step before it — and so the final go / no-go call is an informed one, not a first guess.

1. Opportunity overview — the baseline facts.
2. Competitor analysis — who you're up against.
3. Discriminator analysis — why you win.
4. Teaming partner overview — filling your gaps.
5. Win themes — saying it sharply.
6. Bid/no-bid gate review package — making the call.
7. Capture plan — running the pursuit.

The order is optimal, not mandatory. Each activity checks which earlier outputs are connected and degrades gracefully — run any one on its own and it will tell you what it's missing.

Phase 2: Prepare & plan

Prepare & plan builds the framework for your response before anyone starts writing. It's where you review the RFP, run AI analysis, manage tasks, and track readiness.

The activities fall into three groups.

Structure and strategy

These shape what you'll say and how you'll organize it.

Compliance and requirements

These make sure you answer exactly what's been asked.

Risks and open questions

These surface problems while there's still time to act on them.

Why this phase matters

The outputs here carry straight into the write phase. The suggested response structure gives you an outline to draft against, and your win themes and compliance outputs give the whole team a shared reference while writing and reviewing.

A good rhythm is:

1. Review the suggested response structure and adjust it to suit your team.
2. Check missing information and potential risks, and send any potential clarification questions to the buyer early.
3. Confirm your win themes with the proposal team.
4. Pin the compliance matrix and scoring methodology so they stay within reach.

Tip: Clarification questions often have a submission window. Generate and review them as early as you can.

Phase 3: Write

The write phase is where your proposal takes shape. After you've prepared the project, AutogenAI generates a structured outline for your proposal, then helps you turn each section into a full first draft, with your RFP document visible alongside so every requirement stays in view.

Each response follows the same loop: review the storyboard, generate, refine, review, export.

How your project library connects the phases

The project library is a proposal-specific storage space inside each project: the place for the source documents, evidence, and reference content for that opportunity.

It works across all three phases:

• Add sources to upload new files, create a folder, or connect your organization's knowledge hub (SharePoint, integrations, or other libraries).
• Generated activities are saved automatically. Your competitor analysis, capture plan, and other outputs land in the library and can be selected as sources for later activities. Earlier work informs and strengthens later work.
• Source providers control what the AI uses while writing. In the Write tab, you choose which sources to draw from for that session.

Tip: Add sources as you find them. A document added during the pre-proposal phase is available to every phase after it.

Best practices

• Upload the whole RFP pack. The AI's analysis is only as complete as the documents it reads.
• Add sources early. Anything in your project library is available to every later phase.
• Don't skip prepare & plan. The structure, themes, and compliance outputs are what keep your draft on target.
• Treat the storyboard as the real input. Time spent on it before generating saves editing time afterward.
• Review before you export. Run gamma review against compliance and win plan at a minimum.

Summary

Creating a project takes a few minutes: name it, upload your RFP, set a deadline, add sources, and finish. From there, the project home guides your proposal through three phases.

1. Pre-proposal qualifies the opportunity.
2. Prepare & plan builds the response framework.
3. Write turns that framework into a reviewed first draft, ready to export.

Across every phase, your RFP, team, research, drafts, and reviews stay together in one connected workspace.