We’ve all been there. It’s 3 PM on a Friday, and you just received another RFI with a two-week deadline. As you scan through the 247 questions about everything from your security architecture to your go-to-market strategy, you think: “There has to be a better way.”
You’re absolutely right. And if you’ve been watching the market lately, you’ve probably noticed the buzz around AI-powered RFI automation tools promising to solve this exact problem for analyst relations teams. The pitch is tempting: Upload your RFI, press a button, and watch AI magically generate your responses.
But here’s what we’ve learned after helping dozens of enterprise technology companies streamline their RFI processes: The magic button doesn’t exist.
The Reality Check: Why Analyst Relations RFIs Are So Complex
Let’s start with some eye-opening data from recent industry research. According to a KCG presentation at User Forum 2024, a participating vendor can expect to spend over 150 hours working on a single analyst RFI—from getting on the analyst’s radar to filling in 200+ question questionnaires and preparing for product demos. With AR teams tackling roughly 24 RFIs per year, that’s over 3,600 hours annually spent on RFI responses alone.
But here’s the thing that makes RFIs particularly challenging for automation: No two are exactly alike. Each RFI requires pulling information from:
- Finance systems for revenue and growth metrics
- CRMs for customer data and case studies
- Sales teams for competitive positioning
- Marketing for messaging and differentiation
- Security teams for compliance frameworks
- Product teams for technical specifications
- Leadership for strategic direction
Even RFIs that look similar on the surface can have subtle but crucial differences in how questions are framed, what evidence they’re seeking, or which aspects of your business they prioritize. Even something as simple as the format each firm chooses for your response can result in extra hours of work to get information you have into the output you need to generate.
The AI Automation Promise
AI is transformative for analyst relations. The benefits of RFI automation are real:
- 42% time savings per RFI according to benchmark studies—that’s 60+ hours back in teams’ schedules
- Work redistribution from specialized SMEs to support staff for initial drafts
- Faster turnaround on the growing volume of vendor evaluations (hello, doubled Magic Quadrants and new EMQs)
- Better coverage of Tier 2 and 3 reports that punch above their weight in LLM-driven search results
- Strategic time recapture for relationship building and inquiry programs that actually drive analyst perception
But here’s where most AI RFI tools stumble: They are built for standard question-and-answer pairs, but AR RFI questions tend to be custom, nuanced, and complex. Tools promise plug-and-play automation for a process that stubbornly resists automation. The analysts want a differentiated take on the markets they cover, and that requires asking questions that go beyond the standard answers. Their goals are in direct opposition to easy reuse of previous work.
Think of it like this: AI RFI tools are like having a world-class chef in your kitchen who can prepare any dish imaginable – but only if you’ve already stocked your pantry with the right ingredients, properly labeled and organized. When an analyst needs a ‘signature dish’ (differentiated insights on emerging AI governance frameworks, for example), the AI chef keeps reaching for basic seasonings (generic market analysis) when the recipe calls for rare, specialized ingredients that haven’t been sourced yet. The tool promises gourmet results, but when the pantry is bare, it delivers fast-food answers.
Every company has different data sources, approval workflows, compliance requirements, and risk tolerances. Your CRM might be Salesforce while your competitor uses HubSpot. Your AI governance team might approve OpenAI but not Anthropic, or vice versa. Your legal team might require specific approval chains that don’t match the tool’s workflow assumptions. The tools are customizable to your workflow, but that buildout takes time. Achieving the promised time savings is going to take an up-front effort.
What You Actually Need to Watch Out For
Before diving into any RFI automation solution, there are three critical considerations that most vendors gloss over:
- AI governance and security: Your company almost certainly has restrictions on which AI models you can use with sensitive data. Many RFI automation tools require uploading highly confidential information to third-party systems. Make sure your security and AI governance teams have explicitly approved any tool before you upload a single document.
- The human effort reality: These tools can be fantastic time-savers, but they’re not magic wands. You’ll still need someone to collect assets, craft effective prompts, shepherd the process, evaluate outputs, and iterate for quality. The question isn’t whether you’ll need human involvement—it’s whether you have the right expertise and bandwidth to make the most of these tools, especially at the beginning stages.
- Integration complexity: The best RFI responses pull information from multiple systems and teams. How well does your chosen tool integrate with your existing tech stack? Can it access your approved knowledge base? Does it work with your current approval workflows?
The ARInsights Approach: Strategy-Led, Tool-Enabled
This is why we’ve taken a different approach at ARInsights. Instead of building another one-size-fits-all RFI automation tool, we focus on helping you select, implement, and optimize the solution that fits your unique environment.
Here’s how we think about it:
Tool selection that actually fits
We start by understanding your specific context. Does your sales organization already subscribe to an AI tool you could leverage? What are your company’s AI model restrictions? Are you looking for simple content creation, or do you need full workflow management? Do you have existing internal workflows with approved LLMs that we can build upon?
We’ve used all the major tools in this space, and we know which ones excel at content generation vs. workflow management vs. audit trails and approval chains.
Implementation that works in the real world
Once we’ve identified the right tool for your environment, we provide step-by-step guidance for workflow management throughout the entire RFI response process. This includes our proven library of AI prompts that deliver the best responses for each tool at each step—prompts refined through real implementations.
Full-service support when you need it
Sometimes you want to own the process; sometimes you want us to handle it entirely. Our full-service offering can help with any and every step of the process, from tool configuration to final RFI submission.
The Bottom Line
RFI automation isn’t about finding a perfect tool—it’s about building a system that works for your organization’s specific needs, constraints, and goals. The companies seeing the biggest wins aren’t the ones who found the “magic button.” They’re the ones who thoughtfully integrated AI into their existing workflows, with proper guardrails and realistic expectations.
We’ve seen too many analyst relations teams get excited about AI automation, purchase a tool, and then struggle to make it work within their organizational constraints. By the time they’ve spent months trying to configure it properly, they could have completed their RFIs the old way twice over.
The smarter approach?
Start with strategy, then select the right tool and implementation approach for your unique environment.
Every hour you save on RFI responses is an hour you can invest in the strategic work that actually moves the needle with analysts—building relationships, driving insights, and positioning your company for the future.
Ready to explore RFI automation that actually fits your organization? We’d love to share our proven process for tool selection and implementation. Schedule a conversation with our team to learn how we can help you reclaim those 3,600 hours.
