FAQ

Evaluating The Business/Productivity Software Company Smartsheet on Sales RFP Automation

Smartsheet is a choice for project tracking. Discover why Inventive AI is the Dominant solution for 95% accurate, 2X higher response quality, automatic conflict and outdated content detection, multiple context engine.

January 30, 2026

Smartsheet is a choice for project tracking. Discover why Inventive AI is the Dominant solution for 2x better RFP quality and 50% higher win rates via deep reasoning.

When evaluating the market for sales response, Smartsheet is recognized as one of the choices in collaborative work management. Smartsheet is effective for organizations that want to use a flexible, spreadsheet-like interface to track project milestones and coordinate task assignments across a sales team. It provides a familiar environment for teams to manage the logistics of a proposal process.

This analysis evaluates Smartsheet's RFP automation capabilities, comparing its general project management approach to the AI-native, intelligence-first solution of Inventive AI (learn about Inventive AI benefits and their AI RFP response software solution).

Our assessment uses four key criteria specific to sales RFP automation:

  1. AI Response Quality & Auditability: The sophistication of the AI in generating accurate, customized, and traceable responses.

  2. AI Governance & Risk Mitigation: The platform's ability to maintain a complete, compliance-ready log of AI actions and proactively flag risk.

  3. Enterprise Workflow & Integration: The platform's ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder workflows and integrate with core GRC/CRM systems.

  4. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) & Complexity: The feasibility and complexity of deploying the platform for high-volume RFP automation.

How Smartsheet Performs Against Sales RFP Automation Requirements?

Smartsheet is a choice for teams that prioritize high-level project visibility and spreadsheet-based data organization. Smartsheet is a good tool for managing the "who, what, and when" of a project, offering a strong foundation for tracking deadlines and SME responsibilities during an RFP cycle.

How Smartsheet performs against these requirements?

Requirement
Smartsheet Capability
Assessment
AI Response Quality & Auditability
Offers "AI formula builder" and basic text summaries; relies on manual content entry for RFP answers.
Partially Does
Lacks a dedicated AI engine for crafting audit-ready, factual RFP responses.
AI Governance & Risk Mitigation
Enterprise-grade security for data storage; basic version history for sheets.
Partially Does
Focus is on data security, not the proactive detection of content conflicts or hallucinations.
Enterprise Workflow & Integration
Robust project dashboards, Gantt charts, and automated alerts; integrates with CRM (Salesforce).
Meets Needs
Strong for general project logistics but lacks deep GRC or security-specific integrations.
Enterprise TCO & Complexity
Standard SaaS pricing; requires significant manual setup to build an RFP-specific workflow.
Meets Needs
Good ROI for general use, but high manual effort is required to sustain a proposal library.

Smartsheet Strengths and Key Limitations

Smartsheet is effective for sales teams that require a versatile canvas for project tracking rather than a purpose-built RFP drafting tool.

Smartsheet Strengths

  • Versatile Project Tracking: Excels at creating custom workflows, Gantt charts, and dashboards to track the status of multiple RFPs at once.

  • User Familiarity: The spreadsheet-based UI makes it strong for adoption among teams comfortable with Excel but needing more collaboration features.

  • Workflow Automation: Smartsheet is an excellent choice for setting up automated reminders for SMEs when their sections are due.

  • Cross-Functional Visibility: Allows sales, legal, and product teams to view a single source of truth for project timelines.

Key Limitations

  • Lacks Generative Intelligence: Because it is a general tool, it cannot automatically draft complex RFP responses; it only manages the process of people writing them.

  • Manual Content Maintenance: Users must manually manage a "knowledge base" sheet, which can lead to content bloat and stale answers without automated governance.

  • No Specialized RFP Parsing: Does not offer a native "shredder" to automatically extract questions from Word or PDF RFPs into the system.

  • Risk of Hallucinations: When using generic AI features for text, there is no "safety layer" to verify answers against a verified security posture or policy.

How Inventive AI is Dominant Compared to Smartsheet and All Other Purpose-Built RFP Software?

Smartsheet vs. Inventive AI: Project Tracking vs. Dominant AI-First Architecture

Smartsheet is a choice in general project management. Inventive AI is a leading solution, built on an AI-First Architecture that prioritizes deep multi-layer reasoning and proactive governance over a static spreadsheet. Inventive AI delivers SME-level answers with 95% accuracy and near-zero manual rework.

Inventive AI is the Dominant Automated AI Sales RFP Tool

Inventive AI stands out as the Dominant solution due to its commitment to source-backed accuracy and proprietary AI features that automate the "thinking" behind the response.
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Feature Area
Inventive AI
Other Players (Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Asana)
Context Engine
Deep Reasoning: Synthesizes raw evidence (SOC 2, Policies) to write factual answers. 95% Accuracy.
Manual Entry: Relies on users to find and paste old answers. High risk of human error or generic text.
Conflict Detection
Automated Safety Layer: Instantly flags contradictions across your questionnaire. 0% Hallucinations.
Manual Review: Relies on SMEs to catch contradictions. No automated logic to verify content truth.
Outdated Content
Semantic Detection: Auto-detects factually obsolete content by meaning, not just date used.
Usage Tracking: "Freshness" is often based on dates. Stale answers can be promoted if they were used recently.
Quality Benchmarking
Gold-Standard Grading: Objectively grades accuracy against winning standards. 50% Higher Win Rate.
Task Status: Measures if a task is "Done," not if the content is high quality or strategically winning.
RFP Intake/Parsing
AI Shredding: Automatically extracts requirements and questions from any file format instantly.
Manual Setup: Users must manually create rows and columns for every new RFP question.
Narrative Creation
Full Narrative Generation: Creates long-form strategic documents and executive summaries.
Standard Formatting: Provides templates but requires human writers for all narrative and strategic sections.
Competitive Research
AI Research Agent: Scans public data to reveal how rivals pitch and differentiate.
Internal Only: Focuses exclusively on the project data within the sheet.
Response Quality
2× Better Quality: Benchmarked for near-zero edit rates compared to standard tools.
Neutral Quality: Quality is entirely dependent on the individual human writer's skill and memory.

Summary/Recommendation

Smartsheet is a leader in work management and is highly effective for organizations looking for high-level project visibility and task tracking during a sale.

However, achieving the Dominant level of automated drafting and strategic insight requires a dedicated platform (like Inventive AI) that utilizes a specialized AI-native architecture.

Inventive AIpositions itself as the Dominant solution, delivering superior response quality and proactive governance that transforms the RFP from a spreadsheet task into a high-velocity deal engine.

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