The new procurement law has applied since early July. Deadlines are tightening – and suddenly it is no longer the best bid that wins, but the complete one. The fastest route there is not faster typing, but your own company knowledge.
What “filling out” a tender really means
Filling out a tender doesn’t mean populating text fields with running text. It means finding the right, verifiable answer for every mandatory field: references, qualification evidence, details on quality assurance, subcontractors or master data. Most of these answers have long existed – in the last bid, in the contract from the year before last, in a reference list nobody can find any more.
So the real problem is rarely a writing problem. It is a search problem.
Why shorter deadlines make filling out the bottleneck
Under the Procurement Acceleration Act (Vergabebeschleunigungsgesetz), the federal government awards direct contracts of up to €50,000 net without a formal procedure. Suitability often starts with a self-declaration, and the contracting authority only requests the full evidence shortly before award – often with a deadline of one or two days. Anyone who can’t deliver everything immediately is out. You can find more context in our overview of the Procurement Acceleration Act.
If things get tight because evidence is only requested shortly before award, speed decides – more on this under Request for missing documents in tenders.
The consequence: completeness at the right time beats the perfect wording. And this is exactly where bids fail that should actually have won.
The three biggest time sinks when filling out
- Scattered documents. Evidence sits in ten folders on three drives. Every submission starts with searching instead of answers.
- Rewriting instead of retrieving. The same question about experience, quality or references is typed out from scratch for every tender – even though the answer already exists.
- No source check. If an answer is generated “freely”, it is plausible but not substantiated. In tenders, though, what counts is verifiable proof, not the nice sentence.
How to fill out tenders in hours instead of days
- Make it findable once. Bring old bids, contracts and references into one searchable place – the foundation for every further submission.
- One suggestion with a source per mandatory field. Instead of a generic text: here is the answer, and here is where it appears in the original document. That way you review instead of type.
- Completeness before elegance. First every mandatory field substantiated and filled, then fine-tuning. When the deadline counts, the complete bid wins.
This is exactly where aiconver comes in: industry-specific AIs fill mandatory fields from your own company knowledge – with source references, and with an honest note when an answer is missing. Our goal for 2026: over 90 percent of documents from existing knowledge. 100 % GDPR-compliant, Made in Germany. This complements the steps Find, Evaluate and Bidder questions.
Checklist: before your next submission
- Have all MUST criteria and mandatory fields been captured – before the first sentence?
- Is there a verifiable source for every answer?
- Are references, qualification evidence and master data centralised and up to date?
- Is it clearly marked which information is still missing – instead of guessing it?
- Could you deliver everything in hours in response to a supplementary request?
Frequently asked questions
What is a mandatory field in a tender?
A field the contracting authority requires to be answered – for example on suitability, references or quality assurance. If the answer or the evidence is missing, exclusion is a risk, regardless of price and quality.
Is AI allowed to fill out tenders – and in a GDPR-compliant way?
Yes. What matters is where the data is stored and where the answers come from. aiconver works GDPR-compliantly on German infrastructure and fills fields from your own documents, verifiable with a source.
How much can be filled automatically?
That depends on the industry and the data situation. Our goal for 2026 is over 90 percent of mandatory fields from existing company knowledge – the bid manager reviews and decides instead of typing from zero.
How quickly can you be complete with it?
Once the documents are findable, the effort shifts from searching to reviewing. Days become hours – decisive when evidence is only requested shortly before award.
Conclusion
The new procurement law rewards speed. But speed doesn’t come from faster typing; it comes from you ceasing to produce knowledge twice. Your own archive is the biggest advantage you have – most people just don’t use it.
Want to see what this looks like with your own documents? In 30 minutes we’ll walk through a real example from your industry: Book an appointment.