10 Modern Challenges in Running Tender Processes

Good tendering practice hasn't changed much in decades. What's changed is the environment it now operates in.

Here are ten challenges that are genuinely new, or newly intensified, in the last few years - and how to counter each one, whatever sector you're buying in.

1. AI-generated bidder responses
Bidders now routinely run RFP questions through an LLM and submit fluent, confident answers that say very little or separate them from other bidders.

Combat it: write your questions that demand specificity an LLM can't fabricate - named evidence, dated commitments, numbers tied to your actual requirement. Consider asking for clarification of whether AI has been used (albeit be aware using AI is not necessary a negative but up to both parties to prove the bidder has the capability an capacity to deliver what they claim).

2. Buyers over-relying on AI to score bids
Evaluation teams are increasingly using AI tools to summarise or score submissions, importing hallucination and bias risk into a part of the process meant to guard against it.

Combat it: use AI to efficiently organise and compare, never to score unsupervised - every AI-assisted judgement needs a human who has actually read the source document and can align it to the business needs and outcomes.

3. Fabricated or AI-embellished evidence
Case studies, reference quotes, and even client testimonials can now be generated or "improved" faster than they can be verified.

Combat it: independently contact referees directly rather than relying on bidder-supplied contact details, and ask questions the bidder couldn't have anticipated or scripted an answer to. Ask for additional references, even where the service failed, rather than the shiny recommended and prompted referees.

4. Technology committed to outpacing the contract term
Multi-year agreements can increasingly lock in a technology approach that may be materially outdated within 18 months, especially anywhere AI capability is moving quickly.

Combat it: build contractual refresh or re-evaluation points into long-term deals rather than fixing the technical approach for the full term at signature.

5. Volatile input costs destabilising fixed pricing
Cloud, hardware, energy, and currency volatility make a fixed multi-year price harder to trust than it used to be - either it's already stale, or it's quietly hedged with buyer-unfriendly terms.

Combat it: ask bidders to show their assumptions (indexation, currency, unit costs) behind the headline figure, not just the total.

6. Market consolidation shrinking real choice
Private equity roll-ups and industry consolidation mean the same handful of ultimate owners increasingly sit behind apparently competing bidders.

Combat it: require explicit disclosure of ownership structure and common investors as a mandatory question, and check it independently rather than assuming bidder disclosure is complete.

7. AI and data-sovereignty terms buried in the small print
Where and how a bidder's AI tools process your data is now a live risk, but it's rarely asked about directly.

Combat it: make AI usage and data-residency policy a scored evaluation question in its own right, not an afterthought in a data-protection clause.

8. Deepening subcontractor and delivery-chain opacity
Delivery models are more globalised and layered than ever, making 'who actually does the work' harder to pin down behind a single prime contractor.

Combat it: require full subcontractor and delivery-location disclosure, and make the prime contractually liable for subcontractor failure, not just operationally responsible for it.

9. Cyber and ransomware liability as a central negotiation point
This has moved from a compliance checkbox to one of the most commercially contested clauses in any contract, as breach costs and insurer exclusions both rise.

Combat it: negotiate cyber liability and incident-response obligations as a headline commercial term, with the same scrutiny as price.

10. Compressed timelines colliding with deeper scrutiny requirements
Businesses want decisions faster than ever, just as ESG, cyber, and ownership due diligence all demand more evidence, not less.

Combat it: build compliance and evidence checks into the earliest stage of the tender process, not the end, so speed doesn't come at the cost of what actually gets checked.


Every one of these risks grows in the gap between how fast the market is moving and how carefully anyone is checking.

Ask sharper questions, verify independently, and help the business treat completeness as seriously as the pitch.

7 Step Solutions works with all sized brands as their external procurement support - whether a managed service, rapid project solution or augmented resource into their team, we bring deep experience and outcome focused solutions across your commercial and procurement needs.

Drop Director jamesball@7stepsolutions.co.uk a message to discuss your specific needs.