I have been working on trying to engage more with AI. Trying to use it in my everyday life at work to assist me in getting things done quicker and allowing me to accomplish more in less time. It is tough though… I am not sure what AI can do for me at times… so I have to learn and trust my instincts to make sure I give it a chance. I don’t use it to replace anything that we do. I don’t use it with a blind trust. Everything I ask it to help me with… I take with a grain of salt and check thoroughly. And from my learning the one-time (and yes only one time and I was transparent about it) I used AI for the writing of a TMC, I must make sure it is in my voice. And as we all know, the more you use your platform of choice, the more it can mirror your voice.
Well in this case I decided to use it to help me on writing an RFP. The reason I am sharing this with you is not about the RFP… but what I learned about AI. The situation was this. I got the RFP late. I was not sure I really wanted to submit it, I did not believe they had the budget to pay for what they wanted done. I knew this would take me between 35 to 45 hours to research, write, review and edit. I did not have the time to do that. So, the lightbulb went on and I thought “why don’t I ask AI to research and write this for me?”. And I did. The outcome was VERY interesting.
I provided the entire 68-page RFP I had received to AI. I gave explicit instructions on what I needed and what I did not need. (For instance, the RFP had three deliverables… one of the three was the financial section – the price we were bidding and details around it. I did not need AI to deliver on that, just the other two. I was fine with the pricing deliverable.) I gave it all to my “Co-pilot”. Now this is where it got interesting.
Normally when I use AI the replies or answers or deliverables are presented within a few seconds or at the most a few minutes. I had never provided AI with anything as complicated and detailed, and research based as this. After a couple of hours (yes hours) I promoted again… asking when “he” expected to be done. My Co-pilot got back to me referencing what it was working on at that specific time and it would be a while longer. I went out, then I had dinner then I went to bed fully expecting my draft RFP submission to be ready at the latest in the morning. He was still working on it. When prompted, another update, apologies and said it will be a while longer. All in all, it too 5 days and about 6 hours. Yes… 5 days and 6 hours. You read that right. When I went to review it, it was amazing. Well researched, well written and fairly accurate. I did not submit it, lol… because the submission date has passed by the time I got it… but I did spend a few hours reviewing and altering and redesigning it. It may have taken Co-Pilot 5 days to deliver it to me… but that was not me working. If I had submitted, the total hours I would have dedicated to writing the submission would have neem less than 8 hours. WOW!
I am trying these days to use AI more to help me. Not to do my work but to support and help me to do it quicker and more efficiently. Let me know how you are using AI in the sponsorship game… be that for data collection and analysis or for writing proposals r prospecting or what.
If you want to learn more about AI and how to use it in the sponsorship marketing industry register for Canada’s #1 sponsorship marketing conference, the Western Sponsorship Congress® – Alberta Forum. Register today for awesome savings!
© 2025 All rights reserved.