Pre-Publish Insights
On the Review step before you publish, get an AI read of your request that flags gaps in scope, missing requirements, budget feasibility, a tight timeline, or a thin supplier pool. Advisory only, never blocking.
What you'll learn
- Catch gaps in a request before suppliers ever see it
- Understand what the insights flag and how to act on each one
- Know that the check is advisory and never stops you publishing
You can publish a request that is technically complete and still get weak results. The required fields are filled, so nothing stops you, but the scope is vague, a key requirement is missing, the timeline is tight for the category, or the budget does not match the work. You only find out when the bids come back thin, off-target, or not at all, and by then the request is already out in the market.
Pre-Publish Insights is the read you get before that happens. On the Review step, the last step before you publish, it analyzes your request the way an experienced colleague would on a final read, and flags what could be improved: unclear scope, a requirement gap, a budget that looks off, a deadline that is tight, or a supplier pool that looks thin. It is advisory only. It never blocks publishing and never changes your request. It points out what it sees, links you to the step where you would fix it, and leaves the decision to you.
Why this matters
The required-field checks in the wizard tell you whether a request is complete. They cannot tell you whether it is good. A request can pass every validation and still be hard to bid on. Pre-Publish Insights fills that gap with a judgement read, the kind a careful reviewer gives, at the one moment it is cheapest to act on: before the request is live and while every step is still one click away.
When to use it
Run the insights on the Review step, after you have built the request and before you publish. It is most valuable when:
- The request is detailed enough that a gap is easy to miss on your own read.
- You are sourcing in a category or market you do not run often and want a sanity check.
- You want a second read on whether your timeline and budget are realistic for what you are asking.
Because it is advisory, there is no penalty for skipping it, and no requirement to act on what it says. It is there to make a strong request stronger, not to gate you.
What it looks at
The insights read across the whole request and call out improvement opportunities such as:
- Scope clarity: requirements that are vague or open to interpretation, where suppliers might guess differently and bid on different assumptions.
- Requirement gaps: something a supplier would need to bid accurately that is not stated.
- Budget feasibility: an estimated value that looks high or low for the work described.
- Timeline tightness: a deadline that may be too short for suppliers to price the request well in your category.
- Supplier coverage: a pool that looks thin, where few suppliers may see or respond to the request as it stands.
Each insight is a suggestion, not a verdict. When the request looks solid, it tells you it found no major improvement opportunities rather than overclaiming that everything is perfect.
What it uses
Pre-Publish Insights uses AI credits. It shows its cost on the analyze button before you run it, and a run that fails for any reason is never charged. It is available on every plan: Explore, Grow, and Scale, with access by your credit balance rather than your plan tier. If your balance is too low, the panel shows that and offers a top-up path for Admins.
Wondering how credits work across the AI tools? AI credits covers your plan grant, top-ups, and your balance. This tool draws from the same balance as every other AI feature.
Running the insights, step by step
The insights panel sits on the Review step, alongside the full preview of your request.
Reach the Review step and run the analysis
Work through the wizard to the Review step. The insights panel is marked clearly as advisory. Select Analyze to run it. The button shows the credit cost, so you know what the read costs before you start it.
Read the flagged improvements
The panel returns a short list of improvement opportunities. Each one explains what it noticed in plain terms. Many come with a link that jumps you straight to the step where you would address it, the Details step for a timeline note, the Bill of Quantities for a line-item gap, so you can act without hunting for the right place.
Act on what is useful, or publish as is
You decide what to do with each insight. Follow a link, make a change, and come back. Or read the list, judge that a flag does not apply to your situation, and publish anyway. Nothing here blocks you. The insights inform your decision; they never override it.
If you edit the request after running the analysis, the panel notices that the result is now out of date and offers to re-analyze, so an old read never sits over a changed request. Re-running with no meaningful change costs nothing; a real edit re-runs the read.
Publish when you are ready
When you are satisfied, publish from the Review step as normal. An open request goes to matching suppliers; a private one sends invitations to the suppliers you chose. The insights were your final read; publishing is still your call, made exactly as it would be without them.
What good looks like
The insights are most useful when you treat them as a prompt to think, not a checklist to clear. A few habits help:
- Run them once the request is genuinely finished, on the Review step, so the read reflects the real thing rather than a half-built draft.
- Read every flag, but apply judgement. A tight-timeline note may be exactly right for an urgent request you intend to push out fast. The tool surfaces it; you weigh it.
- Use the jump links. Acting on a flag in the moment, while the context is fresh, is far easier than noting it and coming back.
- Re-analyze after a meaningful edit. If you change scope, budget, or the supplier pool in response to a flag, a fresh read confirms the gap is closed.
Catching a thin pool before it is too late
A buyer finishes a specialist fabrication request and runs the insights on Review. The panel flags that the deadline is tight for the category and that the matched supplier pool looks thin. The buyer extends the deadline by a week and widens the category to reach more capable suppliers, then re-analyzes to confirm both flags clear. The request publishes to a healthier pool, and the fix happened before a single supplier saw a weak version.
What suppliers see
Suppliers never see the insights, the flags, or the fact that the request was reviewed by AI. They see only the request you publish. Everything the panel surfaces is private to you, a final read for your eyes alone. What reaches the market is your reviewed, finished request, shaped by your decisions about which flags to act on.
What comes next
A reviewed request is ready to publish. If a flag pointed at a thin supplier pool, supplier matching can help you widen it before you go live, and once the request is published, your next moves are managing who can bid and preparing to evaluate.
Next steps
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