Three Proposal Red Flags That Tell Contracting Officers You Used AI to Write It

Government proposal writing mistakes are costing small businesses millions in contracts they should be winning — and most don't even know they're making them. In this episode, procurement expert Zack Golden breaks down the three most common red flags that tell a contracting officer your proposal was AI-generated, generic, or just not written by a real person who wants the work. If you've submitted technically compliant proposals and still lost, this episode explains exactly why.

What you'll learn in this episode: Why AI-generated proposals are getting flagged immediately — Bold fonts, bullet points everywhere, and em-dashes are dead giveaways that your bid wasn't written by a human, and evaluators notice before they even finish page one. The "contractor shall" trap and how it kills best-value bids — Simply restating what the SOW requires doesn't tell the agency why you're the right partner; Zang explains the critical difference between technical compliance and compelling narrative.