Skip to content

Legal Services · Client Development & BD

Respond to RFPs and pitch for work

EnhancesStable
Available Now
Production-ready. Commercial solutions exist and organizations are actively deploying.

Trajectories describe the observable direction of human effort — not a prediction about specific roles, headcount, or individual careers.

What You Do Today

BD teams prepare proposals, pitch decks, and RFP responses — showcasing firm capabilities, relevant experience, and team qualifications.

AI Technologies

Roles Involved

Who works on this
CX Strategy LeaderChief of StaffInnovation LeadVendor / Technology Partner ManagerExecutive Assistant
VP/SVPDirectorManager/SupervisorIndividual Contributor

How It Works

AI generates tailored proposals from firm experience databases, assembles relevant credentials, and customizes pitches based on client industry and needs.

What Changes

Proposal creation drops from days to hours; AI assembles relevant experience and generates first-draft responses tailored to each RFP.

What Stays the Same

The pitch itself — the personal connection, understanding the client's real needs, and the persuasion that wins new business.

Evidence & Sources

  • Litera Foundation
  • PitchPerfect
  • Qorus

Sources listed are directional references, not formal citations. Verify against primary sources before using in business cases or presentations.

Last reviewed: March 2026

What To Do Next

This section won't tell you what your numbers should be. It will show you how to find them yourself. Every instruction below produces a real, verifiable result in your organization. No benchmarks, no projections — just the steps to build your own evidence.

1

Establish Your Baseline

Know where you are before you move

Before adopting AI tools for respond to rfps and pitch for work, document your current state in client development & bd.

Map your current process: Document how respond to rfps and pitch for work works today — who does what, how long each step takes, and where the bottlenecks are. Use your matter management system data to establish a factual baseline.
Identify the judgment calls: The pitch itself — the personal connection, understanding the client's real needs, and the persuasion that wins new business. — these are the boundaries AI won't cross. Know them before you start.
Check your data readiness: AI tools for client development & bd need clean, accessible data. Check whether your matter management system has the historical data, integrations, and quality to support Proposal generation tools.

Without a baseline, you can't tell whether AI actually improved respond to rfps and pitch for work or just changed who does it.

2

Define Your Measures

What to track and how to calculate it

matter cycle time

How to calculate

Measure matter cycle time for respond to rfps and pitch for work before and after AI adoption. Pull from your matter management system.

Why it matters

This is the most direct indicator of whether AI is adding value to client development & bd.

outside counsel spend

How to calculate

Track outside counsel spend using the same methodology you use today. Don't change how you measure just because you changed how you work.

Why it matters

Speed without quality is just faster mistakes. Measure both together.

When to check: Check after 30 days of consistent use, then quarterly.
The commitment: Give new tools at least 30 days before judging. The first week is always awkward.
What NOT to measure: Don't measure AI adoption rate as a goal. Measure outcomes. If the tool helps with respond to rfps and pitch for work, people will use it.
3

Start These Conversations

Who to talk to and what to ask

General Counsel or Managing Partner

What's our plan for AI in client development & bd? Are we piloting, planning, or waiting?

This tells you whether to experiment quietly or push for formal investment in respond to rfps and pitch for work.

your matter management system administrator or vendor

What AI capabilities exist in our current matter management system that we're not using? Most platforms are adding AI features faster than teams adopt them.

The cheapest AI adoption is the features already included in your existing license.

a practitioner in client development & bd at another organization

Have you deployed AI for respond to rfps and pitch for work? What worked, what didn't, and what would you do differently?

Peer experience is more useful than vendor demos. Find someone who has actually done this.

4

Check Your Prerequisites

Confirm readiness before you invest

Check items as you confirm them.

More in Client Development & BD

Technology That Enables This

These architecture components support or enable this AI application.

See This Concept Across Industries