AI briefs
On notice detail pages, members with a free account see an AI brief — a plain-language summary of what is being bought or offered, written to help a busy small-business owner decide quickly whether the opportunity is worth reading further.
What the brief covers
- What it is — what is being procured or offered, grounded in the notice text
- Who should apply — the kind of organization this opportunity suits
- Eligibility notes — mandatory requirements explicitly stated in the notice text
- Key requirements — concrete deliverables or scope items from the notice text
- Effort level — a rough read of how much work a response would take (low, moderate, high, or unknown when the text doesn't support a judgement)
- What the notice doesn't say — important things the notice text does not state, listed honestly rather than guessed at
What always comes from the database, never the AI
The brief never states the deadline, dollar amounts, budget, or buyer name as findings — those always render from RFPfit's database next to the brief. This means a brief can never contradict the official closing date or contract value you see on the page.
Which notices get a brief
Briefs are generated only for notices from sources whose open licences permit derived works: CanadaBuys (federal), SEAO (Québec), and Toronto Open Data. Notices from other sources show the teaser text available from that source, with no AI brief.
Even on supported sources, a brief is only generated when there is enough grounded text to work from. Notices with very short descriptions do not produce a brief, and the checklist will say so.
Caching and feedback
Briefs are generated once and cached — the same brief shows to every member of your organization viewing that notice, keeping costs down. You can mark a brief Helpful or Not helpful using the controls beneath it on the notice page; your verdict is recorded with the exact brief version you saw, so quality can be tracked honestly.
Application checklists
Every notice page shows an application checklist. The checklist is shared with your whole organization — checking an item off marks it for all members.
Structured items
Every checklist starts with deterministic items built from the notice's own data:
- Submission deadline — from the published closing date in RFPfit's database
- Read the official notice — a direct link to the source when one is available
- Standard step items — generic application steps (confirm eligibility, gather standard documents, submit before the deadline) marked with a Standard step badge so they are never mistaken for requirements stated in the notice
AI-extracted items
On eligible notices (same source allowlist and text threshold as briefs), the checklist also shows items extracted from the notice text, organized under a clear header. Each item is grounded in an explicit statement in the notice — nothing is inferred or invented. A separate Not stated in the notice section lists important application essentials the notice text does not mention, so you know what to look for on the official source.
AI-extracted items carry a note to verify each one against the official notice before relying on it.
Check-off persistence
Check-off state is stored per organization and per notice, and survives brief regeneration. Items are keyed by their content, so if an AI-extracted item is reworded in a new generation, older check-off records for the old wording are not carried over.