AI bid writing at Bidwells cut pitch preparation from two weeks to ten minutes or a few hours. The 187-year-old real estate adviser captured how its best pitch people work, then turned that into a 21-step workflow of AI agents. Ben Lee, its former Head of AI, explained how at aiblLIVE London 2026.
The workflow was built by the pitch experts themselves, on a low-cost platform. Bidwells’ win rate rose from 40% to 60% in a year. Here is the method.
All figures as stated on stage by Ben Lee.
In three stages, led by its own experts. First it captured knowledge from documents and transcribed workshops with its best pitch people. Then its Ben AI tool mapped the process live, so the experts could correct it. Finally the team designed where agents sit and what knowledge each one uses.
The real value was in the instruction. The instruction behind the chatbot is where we can now compete.
Ben Lee, Former Head of AI, Bidwells
Each one mirrors a decision an expert makes. A document analyst reads the tender line by line. A research assistant researches the client. An assembler builds the document the way Bidwells partners like it, and a quality assessor reviews it like the firm’s best reviewer. They run as 21 linked steps on Cassidy.
Yes. Bidwells’ pitch win rate rose from 40% to 60% in a year. Lee puts the gain down to time, not volume. With the research done for them, the team spends its effort on making each pitch stand out, for example with designers or video.
Bringing that time forward and reallocating that time to new things is what’s going to make the difference in the longer run.
Ben Lee, Former Head of AI, Bidwells
Their jobs get unbundled and rebundled. Agents take over research tasks, so Bidwells is hiring fewer researchers and more business development executives who can win work in the room. Lee’s advice is to look across whole jobs, then decide what responsibility, skills or hires go back in.
Ben Lee was Head of AI at Bidwells, the Cambridge and Oxford real estate adviser, for three years. Earlier this year he co-founded Instruction, where he uses the same methods with clients. He spoke on the Efficiency track at aiblLIVE London on 20 October 2026.
If your firm sells expertise and spends weeks on pitches, this is the method to borrow. The full PDF goes deeper than this page, in Lee’s own words.
For bid and pitch leads, business development directors, partners and COOs in professional services firms. Six pages, about an eight-minute read.
