Pitch Smarter, Not Harder: Using AI to Win More Work with Less Effort

Introduction

By now, most agency teams have a decent idea of what AI can do. The gap is between knowing that and actually using it well. AI can do prospect research in minutes that used to take a morning. It gets you to a workable first draft faster. It can personalise a proposal so it doesn’t read like the last three you sent out. And it frees up your best people for the parts of pitching where they can really make a difference.

This session is built to be useful right from the off. The first half covers how to use AI in pitches to do the basics. The second half shows you how cutting-edge teams are now using it. Stuff that wasn’t possible six months ago.

Seminar Overview

The Fundamentals: AI Across the Pitch Process

• Building rich prospect profiles in minutes – company context, decision-maker priorities, competitive landscape
• Turning research into strategy: generating and testing differentiation angles before you commit
• Writing outreach, proposals, and executive summaries that feel personal rather than templated
• Building pitch decks with AI support: structure, narrative, and content
• The prompting skills that separate generic output from genuinely useful work

Getting It Right: Quality and Judgement

• Why AI output is a starting point, not a finish line
• Where human judgement matters most: strategy, creative leaps, chemistry

• Avoiding the traps – bland language, hallucinated facts, the ‘AI voice’ clients can spot
• Making AI part of your team’s workflow rather than one person’s side project

Pushing Further: What’s Possible Right Now

• Going beyond single prompts – building multi-step research and briefing workflows
• Setting up dedicated AI environments for specific prospects or pitches
• Creating reusable frameworks so your team isn’t starting from scratch every time

What You’ll Take Away

• Practical techniques for AI-assisted research, writing, and deck creation you can use immediately
• A clearer sense of where AI adds most value – and where to protect the human elements
• Frameworks your team can adopt without specialist technical skills
• Confidence that you’re using AI at the level of the best teams, not trailing behind them

Who Should Attend?

New business directors, pitch leads, client leadership, and senior strategists who want to get more from AI in their pitch process – whether you’re just getting started or already using it and want to sharpen your approach.

About the Presenter

Matthew Kershaw is founder of Woolf Consulting and co-founder of Woolf & Hale. He spent over a decade running new business and digital transformation inside agencies including BBH and Iris Worldwide before moving into AI strategy. A former Head of Digital at MTV and VP Strategy at AI-video pioneer D-ID – where he helped scale the business from $245k to $25m ARR – he now works with agencies and creative businesses on practical AI adoption. His recent clients include PureGym, Evoke Plc, and Flower Shop (NY), where he’s helped teams build AI capability that sticks.

Running This Session Online

We will run one session only, from 9.15am to 11.15am on Wednesday 17 June 2026 via Zoom. To participate, please email name, job title, agency, and email address to events@aargroup.co.uk. We cannot process bookings without these details.

NB: AAR seminars are exclusive to AAR subscribing agencies. A maximum of five places per agency is permitted for remote sessions.

Bookings will open on Thursday 21 May 2026.