How do you eat an ElephAInt?

“How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is of course “one bite at a time.” This metaphor provides a surprisingly relevant use case for AI in bidding. With many years as a bidding consultant, and having experimented with our own generative AI bidding platform since mid-2023, I’ve learnt that the most common mistake organisations make is trying to swallow the whole ElephAInt in one attempt. This usually results in indigestion, data spills, or wasted effort. So here’s an alternative menu.

Bite one: Get comfortable using AI personally

Before AI touches any business process, people should use it themselves. Not just prompts and policies but hands-on, keyboard-in-hand, “does this make sense?” practice.

At this stage, use AI as your brainstorming buddy, writing coach, a reality check, or a brutally honest editor of half-baked ideas. The goal isn’t perfect output; it’s confidence. You learn what AI can do, where it trips over, and how your own expertise can transform AI outputs from “meh” to “winning material.”

Organisations that skip this step tend to struggle later. If people don’t trust or understand AI personally, they won’t use it effectively in a professional setting. It’s like trying to use a chainsaw without instructions and a safety briefing.

Bite two: Apply AI deeply to one business function

Once people trust AI personally, focus it on a single business function. Bidding is a perfect use case. Why? Because it’s complex, deadline-driven, document-heavy, and intellectually demanding. It involves research, strategy, storytelling, compliance, review, and continuous iteration. These are all areas where AI can assist without removing human judgement.

In practice, AI can help analyse requirements, structure responses, draft and polish content, challenge win themes, and keep hundreds of pages consistent. It won’t replace your whole bid team but think of it as an enthusiastic bidding intern.

By applying AI in a singular business function, it lets organisations test processes, measure impact, and survive the inevitable hiccups without turning the whole company upside-down.

Bite three: Scale learnings across the organisation

After AI proves itself in a single, high-stakes environment, the team understands data sensitivity, governance, and when to intervene. Then take these practical lessons and expand AI to other use cases such as sales and marketing, operations, HR and finance functions.

The biggest mistake is trying to eat the whole elephAInt at once. If your eyes are bigger than your belly, you’ll end up choking on the hype, spilling data like gravy, or filling your plate with an indigestible trunk-sized workload. The smartest start with a single, meaningful bite-sized problem. So, take it one bite at a time, and remember to enjoy a few little AI treats along the way.

 Article by Nigel Dennis | Bidwrite