# AI government contract software: what it does and what to check AI now scores fit, reads solicitations and drafts proposals. Here is what each claim means in practice, which tools make it, and the questions to ask before you trust a draft. - [Try Captivaq free for 3 days](https://app.captivaq.com/login) - [See how Captivaq works](https://captivaq.com/#how) By Captivaq research team Updated September 12, 2026. Published September 12, 2026 Captivaq publishes this comparison and is one of the products in it. Every price and coverage claim comes from the vendor's own pages, we accept no placement fees, and we say when another tool is the better fit. [Read the methodology.](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#how-we-evaluated-these-tools) On this page 1. [How we evaluated these tools](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#how-we-evaluated-these-tools) 2. [What AI actually does in this category](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#what-ai-actually-does-in-this-category) 3. [What to check before you trust it](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#what-to-check-before-you-trust-it) 4. [How Captivaq uses AI](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#how-captivaq-uses-ai) 5. [AI tools compared](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#ai-tools-compared) 6. [Where AI is not enough](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#where-ai-is-not-enough) 7. [How to choose](https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software#how-to-choose) Every vendor in government contracting now says AI. The word covers four different things: matching a notice to your company, summarising a solicitation, extracting its requirements into a compliance matrix, and writing the response. Each one has a failure mode, and the right question is not whether a tool uses AI but what it shows you when the AI is wrong. This page explains the jobs, compares the tools that do them, and lists what to check. **Best for matching through a cited draft** Captivaq Fit score with reasons, compliance matrix and a draft that cites the solicitation, US and Canada. **Best analyst and AI mix for enterprise** Deltek GovWin IQ Smart Fit scores and Dela AI over analyst-tracked research, US package only. **Best AI proposal workflow by quote** Sweetspot RFP shredding, matrices and Pink Team drafts for US teams. **Cheapest AI alerts** Jorpex Semantic matching and summaries in Slack or Teams from $49 a month. ## How we evaluated these tools What the vendor claims, not what a demo implied. We read each vendor's product and pricing pages on August 30, 2026 and recorded the AI capability the vendor itself describes. A tool is credited with proposal drafting only when its own pages claim it. Prices appear only when published; everything else is marked contact for quote. Captivaq is included because it competes here. Its capabilities are described from the product as shipped, and the same six checks below apply to it as to every other tool. ## What AI actually does in this category Four jobs, each with its own way of being wrong. Matching reads a notice and your company profile and says how well they fit. Done well, it explains the score: the codes that matched, the set-aside you qualify for, the past performance that supports it, and the requirement that rules you out. Done badly, it is a number with no reason and you learn to ignore it. Summarising compresses a long solicitation into a page. Useful for triage, dangerous as a substitute for reading the instructions to offerors. Extraction pulls every requirement, page limit and evaluation factor into a compliance matrix, which is the single most valuable thing a model can do with a solicitation, and the easiest place for it to miss a line. Drafting writes the volumes. A good drafter works from the compliance matrix and your own documents, marks what it could not know, and shows where each paragraph came from. A bad one writes fluent prose that answers a requirement the solicitation never made. - Matching: a fit score with visible reasons - Summarising: triage, not a replacement for reading - Extraction: the compliance matrix - Drafting: volumes with citations and placeholders ## What to check before you trust it Six questions for any vendor demo. Ask whether the model reads the attachments or only the notice page. The requirement lives in the statement of work and the instructions, not the listing. Ask whether the draft cites the source. A paragraph you cannot trace to a page of the solicitation is a paragraph you have to re-read against it. Ask what the AI does with what it does not know. It should leave a marked placeholder for your project manager's name or your staffing plan, not invent one. Ask whether revisions are proposed or applied. A person should accept or discard every change. Ask what the tool does with your uploaded proposals and whether another customer's model context can ever see them. And ask whether it can submit, sign or price the bid. The answer should be no. - Reads the attachments, not just the notice - Cites the source for every claim - Leaves placeholders instead of inventing facts - Proposes revisions, a person applies them - Keeps your documents inside your workspace - Never submits, signs or prices ## How Captivaq uses AI Two model passes, both shown to you. Captivaq runs matching on every notice it reads against your profile and returns a fit score with the reasons, including sources sought notices and presolicitations, in both the United States and Canada. The AI's recommendation sits beside the deterministic evidence, so you can see when the two disagree. Bid preparation is two passes. The first reads the solicitation and its attachments as files and produces the brief and the compliance matrix. The second drafts one document per volume from that matrix, your profile, and the documents you have uploaded or approved, with citations back to the source and marked placeholders for what it could not know. Revisions are proposed, never applied. Export is PDF or Word. Captivaq does not submit, sign or set your price. The MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client query your pipeline, matches, recompetes and company profile in plain English, and it is included in the plan. Sources: [Captivaq pricing](https://captivaq.com/pricing), [Captivaq MCP server](https://captivaq.com/mcp). ## AI tools compared What each vendor's own pages say the AI does. The table records the AI capability each vendor describes on its official pages, and the published price. A blank in the proposal column means the vendor does not claim drafting, not that it is impossible. | Tool | AI claims | Proposal drafting | Published price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Captivaq](https://captivaq.com/pricing) | Fit score with reasons, early signals, MCP server | Compliance matrix and cited draft, PDF and Word | $99 to $499 a month | | [Deltek GovWin IQ](https://www.deltek.com/en/products/govwin) | Smart Fit scores, Dela AI, analyst research | Outlines and compliance matrix, not in the Canada package | Contact for quote | | [GovTribe](https://govtribe.com/features) | Semantic search, AI recommendations, MCP on credits | Not listed | $1,500 to $6,000 a year | | [HigherGov](https://www.highergov.com/pricing/) | AI tools and insights | Not listed | $500 to $2,500 a year | | [SamSearch](https://samsearch.co/product/find-opportunities) | Natural-language search, matching, summaries | Proposal generation | Annual custom quote | | [Sweetspot](https://www.sweetspot.so/features/proposal-engine/) | Profile matching, RFP shredding | Matrices and Pink Team drafts | Contact for quote | | [GovDash](https://www.govdash.com/discover) | Matching on past performance and codes | Proposal production on the same record | Contact for quote | | [Civio](https://www.civio.ai/) | AI teammates across discovery to renewal | Drafting described, no source directory | Contact for quote | | [Jorpex](https://jorpex.com/pricing/) | Semantic matching and summaries in Slack or Teams | Not listed | $49 to $149 a month | Rates verified on official vendor pages on August 30, 2026, before tax. Quotes vary by seats, modules and coverage. Confirm the current offer before buying. ## Where AI is not enough The decisions that stay with a person. No model knows whether you can staff the work, whether the incumbent is beatable, or what price wins. The bid or no-bid call, the pricing, the teaming and the submission are yours, and a tool that blurs that line is a liability at protest time. AI is also only as good as the profile and documents it reads. A thin profile produces vague matches. A drafter with no approved past proposals writes as if your company had never won anything. The first hour spent on the profile and the upload folder pays back on every draft after it. ## How to choose Run one real solicitation through the drafter. Pick a solicitation you have already answered. Load your real profile and the proposal you submitted. Let the tool build its compliance matrix and draft, then compare both to what you actually sent. Count the requirements it missed, the claims it could not source, and the placeholders it left versus the facts it invented. Then check the price against your bid volume. A drafter you use monthly is worth a subscription. One you use twice a year is not, however good the demo. ## Keep the useful signals Captivaq watches procurement sources against your capabilities, certifications, locations, and past performance. It helps you spend time on opportunities that have a credible fit. [Try Captivaq free for 3 days](https://app.captivaq.com/login) ## Related resources - [### Government contract software The five jobs this software does, and which tools do which.](https://captivaq.com/compare/government-contract-software) - [### Writing a winning bid How to build a compliance matrix and a draft that scores.](https://captivaq.com/guides/writing-a-winning-bid) - [### What is an RFP? What a request for proposal contains and how evaluators score it.](https://captivaq.com/guides/what-is-an-rfp) - [### Software vs proposal writers Where a consultant is worth the fee and where software does the same work.](https://captivaq.com/compare/bid-writers) - [### Captivaq MCP server Query your pipeline from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in plain English.](https://captivaq.com/mcp) - [### GovWin IQ alternative Analyst research by quote against matching and drafting at a published price.](https://captivaq.com/compare/govwin-iq-alternative) ## Questions people ask ### What is AI government contract software? Software that uses language models to match notices to a company, summarise solicitations, extract requirements into a compliance matrix, or draft proposal volumes. Vendors differ in which of those they do and in how much of the reasoning they show you. ### Can AI write a government proposal? It can write a first draft from the solicitation and your documents. The draft needs a person to check every requirement against the compliance matrix, fill the placeholders, set the price and decide to submit. Treat it as a starting point that saves the blank page, not a finished proposal. ### Is it safe to upload past proposals to an AI tool? Ask the vendor where the documents are stored, whether they are used to train a shared model, and whether another customer's drafts can ever see them. Captivaq reads your uploaded and approved documents only inside your workspace when drafting your bids. ### Which AI government contract software covers Canada? Captivaq runs the same matching and drafting on CanadaBuys and selected provincial portals that it runs on US federal work. SamSearch publishes Canadian coverage. Deltek's Canadian GovWin IQ package excludes its AI features. GovTribe, HigherGov, Sweetspot and GovDash are US only. ### How do I know if an AI fit score is any good? It should show its reasons: the codes and set-asides that matched, the past performance it relied on, and the requirement that counts against you. Test it on five notices you already judged and see how often you agree. ### Does AI government contract software submit the bid? No. Submission goes through the channel the solicitation names, and a person does it. Captivaq prepares the package and exports it. It does not submit, sign or price the bid. --- Source: https://captivaq.com/compare/ai-government-contract-software (the same page as HTML). This Markdown is served for `Accept: text/markdown` and at the `.md` sibling of every page. Site index for agents: https://captivaq.com/llms.txt. Sitemap: https://captivaq.com/sitemap.xml.