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AI bid systems for UK SMEs

Increase your bid capacity without growing your team.

Emigre AI builds practical systems that help small bid teams find, qualify, and respond to UK government and defence opportunities faster, while keeping experienced people in control.

Find your biggest bid bottleneckSee how the systems work

For UK SMEs with small bid teams and recurring tender activity.

The problem

The opportunity is large. Your bid team is not.

Small bid teams pursue serious contracts with limited capacity. The work that fills the day is rarely the work that wins.

  • Too many portals and tender notices to monitor.
  • Hours lost assessing unsuitable opportunities.
  • Requirements buried in lengthy documents.
  • Evidence scattered across previous bids and internal files.
  • Subject-matter experts pulled away from their main work.
  • Limited time for proper review before submission.
What we build

Human-led bid management, strengthened by AI.

Tender pipelines don’t fit inside a sales CRM. Most SMEs end up running theirs from a spreadsheet and an inbox full of portal alerts. Emigre AI builds a system around how you actually find and win government contracts.

  1. 01

    Finds the tender before it’s buried in your inbox

    It pulls from the portals and frameworks you bid through, including Find a Tender, G-Cloud, and TED, so a live opportunity doesn’t sit unread in an alert email.

  2. 02

    Reads the document and flags what’s easy to miss

    It surfaces the detail that costs you later, like a Cyber Essentials certificate that needs renewing or a reference you need to chase, while there’s still time to act.

  3. 03

    Checks the requirements against what you can deliver

    It shows you early where a requirement exceeds your capability and where you need a subcontractor, before you commit to the bid.

  4. 04

    Tells you who holds the contract and who else will bid

    You see who holds the contract now and who is likely to compete for it, so you know the picture before you spend days on a response.

  5. 05

    Reviews your draft and shows you where it’s weak

    It reads what you’ve written and points to the gaps. It doesn’t write the bid for you.

Systems are currently custom-built around your workflow rather than a fixed product.

Featured client work

Ocean Safety: an expanding bid systems relationship

Emigre AI surfaced £4m in relevant government tender opportunities in 60 days for this UK marine safety company. What began as tender monitoring grew into a second custom system, and a third is now in progress.

Project 01Delivered

Tender monitoring across seven sources

Ocean Safety needed a better way to monitor tender opportunities across several markets without evaluating every notice manually. Emigre AI built a tender-monitoring workflow that scans seven sources across the UK, Ireland, and Australia, scores opportunities against the company’s criteria, and alerts the team when a relevant opportunity appears. New sources can be added whenever the team needs them.

5+ hours
saved each week on manual checking
7,000+
tender opportunities evaluated to date
£4m
of relevant opportunities surfaced in the first 60 days
Project 02Delivered

Supplier research reduced from hours to minutes

Ocean Safety’s team previously had to look up supplier information for individual stock numbers and manually transfer the results into a spreadsheet. Emigre built a custom internal tool that accepts an uploaded list of stock numbers and returns a completed spreadsheet containing the relevant supplier details. A task that previously required several hours of manual research and data entry now takes only a few minutes.

2 hours
of daily manual data entry, now done in minutes
Project 03In progress

A tender operating system for board-level visibility

The next system pulls together data currently spread across multiple spreadsheets and arranges it in a single, clear dashboard, so the managing director can understand the numbers at a glance and generate board reports automatically. This work is in progress.

Illustrative scoring viewIllustrative example, not live client data
OpportunitySourceValueFit scoreWhy
Marine safety equipment supply frameworkFind a Tender£480k94Matches core product range and required certifications.
Vessel inspection and servicing contractPublic Contracts Scotland£120k81In scope, though delivery region needs a local partner.
General facilities managementeTenders Ireland€2.7m (£2.3m)22Outside product scope. No marine safety requirement.

A continuing relationship for one client demonstrates repeat trust and successful account expansion, not broad market validation. We start with one painful bottleneck, prove its value, then keep improving the wider operation, one workflow at a time.

Supporting result

Monthly newsletter management reduced from days to under 30 minutes

The team at Frances King previously spent several days every month manually preparing and distributing newsletters to hundreds of recipients. Emigre built a newsletter management system that streamlined the process from preparation through to distribution. The team can now complete its monthly newsletter workflow in less than 30 minutes.

Proof that we can map a complex recurring workflow and cut the time it takes.

It takes less than an hour now to send the newsletters to all our different markets each month. I think it would have taken at least one to two days before. I never did all the newsletters at once, but just spread them out over the month.

Paula BaileyPartner Sales Team, Frances King
How we think

Practical systems, not AI for its own sake

Not every problem needs AI. We use it where it adds practical value and use straightforward automation where that’s the better tool.

  • Your team brings the expertise. The AI does the legwork to get there faster.
  • Experienced people remain in control.
  • Outputs stay traceable to source material where appropriate.
  • Systems reflect your own criteria, evidence, and review process.
  • We select AI, automation, or custom software according to the problem.
  • Each project addresses a measurable operational bottleneck.
  • We don’t make security, compliance, or accuracy guarantees we can’t demonstrate.
How an engagement works

Start with the biggest bottleneck. Improve the whole bid operation over time.

We begin with the part of your bid process creating the most drag. Once the first system is working and proving its value, we continue alongside your team to improve the wider bid operation, one high-value workflow at a time.

  1. 01

    Find the biggest constraint

    A focused first call to confirm fit and identify where you lose the most capacity. It’s an initial fit conversation, not a free detailed audit.

  2. 02

    Build the first system

    Scope, build, and test one valuable workflow with the people who will actually use it.

  3. 03

    Prove and refine it

    Evaluate time saved, output quality, adoption, and opportunity quality, then refine.

  4. 04

    Expand across the bid operation

    Improve additional parts of the workflow, one prioritised step at a time, as your process and pipeline evolve.

Samantha North, founder of Emigre AI
Founder

Research-led, workflow-first

Samantha North is the founder of Emigre AI. She holds a PhD in data science from the University of Bath and specialises in turning complex, document-heavy workflows into practical AI and automation systems. Drawing on her doctoral research, she has advised UK and US public-sector organisations on counter-disinformation strategy. She now works closely with small teams to understand how decisions are actually made before automating any part of the process.

  • PhD in data science, University of Bath
  • Advisory work with UK and US public-sector organisations on counter-disinformation strategy
  • Experience building and operating service businesses
  • Designs AI and automation systems around real workflows
  • Respects specialist bid-writing and subject-matter expertise
Questions

What bid teams ask first

Will this write my bid for me?

No. It reads your draft and tells you where it’s weak. It doesn’t write the bid for you. Evaluators can tell when a response is AI-written, and it counts against you. You keep control of the words that go to the buyer.

Will this make our bids sound generic?

No. The expertise stays with your team, who understand your work and your win themes better than any tool. The system handles the slow parts, like finding requirements, checking coverage, and pulling evidence, so your people spend their time on judgement and argument. The words that persuade the evaluator are still yours.

Is my bid data kept confidential?

Yes. Your bid data stays yours. Systems are built around your own files and criteria, and your information isn’t used to train shared AI models or exposed to anyone outside your team. For sensitive work, we agree how and where your data is handled before anything is built.

Where does the system run?

Wherever suits your security needs. Many systems run in the cloud, hosted and managed by us so your team doesn’t have to. Where your data needs to stay on your own infrastructure, we can set the system up on your premises. We agree the right approach with you before building anything.

What if the system gets something wrong?

It flags, it doesn’t decide. The system surfaces requirements, gaps, and risks for your team to check, and a person always reviews before anything goes to the buyer. You keep the same control you have now, with less manual searching.

Do I need to be technical to use it?

No. You run your bids, and the system fits around how you already work. You don’t need to build or maintain anything.

Where does it find the tenders?

From the portals and frameworks you already bid through, including Find a Tender, G-Cloud, and TED. It can also track the framework applications you submit to get onto a prime’s framework, from insurance certificates to capability statements.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Less than you’d expect. We fit the work around your live bids rather than pulling your people off them, and we build in short steps so nothing disrupts a submission in progress.

Do I have to commit to a long contract?

No. We start with one system that solves a specific problem, and you see whether it earns its place before doing more. There’s no long tie-in, and you’re free to stop.

Fit

Is Emigre the right fit?

We work directly with senior leadership and bid teams to build custom systems around strategically important workflows.

We’re likely a strong fit if you

  • Bid regularly for government or defence contracts
  • Have a clear senior owner for the bid process
  • Lose meaningful team capacity to manual work
  • Depend on input from a small number of busy subject-matter experts
  • Want a system designed around your workflow rather than a cheap standalone writing tool

We’re probably not the right fit if you’re

  • Pursuing your first tender
  • Bidding only occasionally
  • Looking for a low-cost off-the-shelf tool
Next step

Where is your bid team losing the most time?

Book a call. We’ll discuss where AI or automation could add practical value and where it should stay out of the way. You’ll answer a few short questions before choosing a time.

Book a call