In this session Dr. Andrew Forde, Partner and Head of AI Research at KPMG, tells three stories from AEC firms that put AI into their pursuits: the architecture firm that got faster and lost its voice, the engineering firm that stood in a high-school gym with a number nobody could source, and the civil firm that won its biggest pursuit based on how they answered the newest question in the RFP: how do you use AI?

We will also discuss how to protect your firm’s voice when a machine writes the first draft (the logo-swap test), how to evaluate AI-generated content before a client sees it (the four risk tiers and the three-line defect note), how to answer client and community concerns (who speaks first when a hearing asks whether a machine wrote this, and the three-sentence answer to the RFP question every firm now gets, how do you use AI?), and where AI belongs in a pursuit, from the go/no-go to the debrief.

Learner outcomes

1. Protect the firm’s voice: Apply the logo-swap test and a named reader before any AI-assisted submission goes out.
2. Evaluate AI-generated content: Tier it by risk, trace every public number to a source, and capture defects in a three-line note.
3. Address client and community concerns: Answer the RFP question on AI use in three checkable sentences, and decide who speaks first.
4. Decide where AI belongs in a pursuit: What it assembles, what it pressure-tests at the go/no-go, and what stays human.