Using AI to streamline your grant awards management

Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping organisations across a range of sectors to work more efficiently, save time writing, and analyse large amounts of information quickly. AI has many applications in grant management, from helping applicants write more compelling submissions to helping grant managers streamline their assessment and management processes. With AI expected to free up 30% of public sector employees’ time in the next five to seven years, it’s technology that organisations should be using now to provide a higher standard of service without increasing costs. Keep reading to learn how AI can streamline your grant award processes and drive more value from your grant programs.

Fraud detection is strengthened with AI

Of course, everyone would like to assume that grant applicants and managers always do the right thing when applying for and awarding grants. However, some bad actors may try to exploit grant programs through fraudulent activities. AI can be used to detect instances of fraud, such as:

• Conflicts of interest: AI can detect if an applicant has outlined providers in their grant application and if engaging those providers constitutes a conflict of interest. Common scenarios can include listing a provider that is related to the applicant.
• Serial applicants: Some machine learning algorithms can analyse the language used in applications to identify “serial applicants” who may apply for grants multiple times under different identities.

By using AI at the start of the grant assessment process, grant managers can quickly determine whether any applications need to be analysed further to determine if fraudulent activities may be occurring.

AI can summarise applications at scale

Taking the time to engage with and analyse applications one by one is important to ensure grant applicants are suitable for the program. However, at the initial stage of analysing what can sometimes be hundreds, maybe thousands, of applications, AI can help summarise these within parameters relevant to the grant program. For example, a grant manager may ask AI to:

• Analyse the applications and rank them for their research and development activities
• Identify the newest businesses by time in operation applying for the grant
• Identify the grant applications that will have the most significant impact on addressing a business need, such as driving state tourism

Use generative AI to formulate feedback

Providing feedback as a public sector organisation can be challenging. The complexity of letting applicants know how they may be able to improve their submission for future applications while remaining impartial can cause departments not to provide feedback at all. However, giving some general feedback to applicants can enhance the applicant experience, even if they aren’t awarded the grant.

Getting to a starting point where some of the communication is drafted can help formulate meaningful, yet still impartial, responses for applicants. Generative AI makes this possible. It’s estimated that generative AI can save people up to 40% of their time at work. Grant managers can provide a prompt such as, “Write a 75-word summary of how this applicant can improve for future rounds or that there was lots of competition”, and AI will generate a response within seconds. This response can either be incorporated into your notification to the applicant or used as a starting point to make further edits. The key with generative AI in grant management for these tasks is that it eliminates the initial time thinking about where to start with crafting a response. Put simply, the person saves time, but they’re still in the driver’s seat.

Adopting AI now can transform grant management workflows

Grant applicants are already using AI to assist them in crafting responses to grant programs. With this technology, the quality and volume of applications may increase, making assessing and identifying successful applicants harder and more time-consuming. Using AI to support grant managers’ decision-making processes can save time, boost efficiency by reducing and eliminating manual tasks, and enhance the applicant experience.

Transform your grant award management with Superware

The AI capabilities that grant managers need to strengthen their decision-making processes and save time are available today. By using a low-code, configurable system such as Superware’s Award coupled with Microsoft Copilot, grant management teams can drive more value from their grant programs and get the tools they need to achieve their organisation’s objectives. It’s the essential tool grant managers need to transform their workflows. Contact us today to see Award and Copilot in action.