Case Study
From 4 Days to 30 Minutes: How Amey built an AI-powered knowledge engine that supports like their experts
Transforming bid writing through intelligent knowledge management – and building the capability for Amey to own forever
The challenge
When expertise is scattered across millions of documents, how do you capture it, leverage it, and make it accessible when it matters most?
Amey, a leading UK infrastructure services provider, faced a challenge familiar to many enterprise organisations. Their vast experience managing complex assets for clients was their greatest competitive advantage – and their biggest operational bottleneck.
The bid writing process exposed this challenge acutely:
4+ days to draft comprehensive short responses
Critical expertise locked in individual silos across the organisation
Inconsistent quality depending on which team members were available
Knowledge walking out the door when consultants or employees moved on
Generic AI tools couldn't understand Amey's unique context and expertise
Standard solutions like Copilot offered basic capabilities, but Amey's vision demanded something far more sophisticated. They needed to transform scattered knowledge into strategic advantage – and build the internal capability to sustain it.
"We have this vast, deep experience of how we manage assets for our clients. What if you could bring together all of that knowledge and make it searchable and instantaneous? Imagine the potential of where this could go."
Rob Curley, Head of Risk, Amey
Our approach
Why Amey chose FOIL
Amey didn't need a vendor to deliver a solution and disappear. They needed a partner who understood their business need for enterprise data transformation - more than just building and deploying technology.
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We started by understanding the real problem Amey was solving, not just the technology they wanted to deploy.
"At FOIL we always consider the bigger strategy. There's no point in building something that's not solving a problem."
— Molly Bland, Lead Engineer
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From day one, FOIL worked alongside Amey's bid writers and development teams – coaching, collaborating, and building capability together.
"From the get-go with Amey, they had everyone involved – bid writers, development team. Everyone really was on board with what we were doing, and we pair programmed to ensure the developers in Amey could adopt the tool long term easily."
— Molly Bland, Lead Engineer
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The AI landscape evolves weekly. FOIL's deep partnerships with Microsoft and expertise in generative AI meant Amey always had access to the latest capabilities.
"One of the brilliant things about working with FOIL was that their finger was on the pulse with the changing technology. We'd encounter problems early on, wait a couple of weeks, and FOIL would go, 'Hey, guess what? They've just released a beta version of that tool, and we're going to apply it now and that problem's gone away.'"
— Rob Curley, Head of Risk, Amey
"One of the brilliant things about working with FOIL was that their finger was on the pulse with the changing technology. We'd encounter problems early on, wait a couple of weeks, and FOIL would go, 'Hey, guess what? They've just released a beta version of that tool, and we're going to apply it now and that problem's gone away."
Rob Curley, Head of Risk, Amey
The solution
Starting at Microsoft's AI Labs in Munich, FOIL designed and built Genny – a sophisticated generative AI platform that goes far beyond standard AI tools.
How Gennie works:
Intelligent Knowledge Architecture that ingests Amey’s top-scoring documentation, feedback and expert insights to create a contextually intelligent repository and explore Amey’s unique expertise, voice and winning approach.
Advanced Generative AI to produce scope analyses that identifies key requirements, opportunities, generates client tailored answer plans and content drafts that genuinely speak like Amey experts.
Orchestrated Integration to seamlessly connect with Amey’s existing Microsoft ecosystem, bring tacit knowledge directly into the context of client problems and maintain the human oversight, while automating repetitive tasks.
What makes Genny different is that it isn't a chatbot or a basic content generator. Genny represents sophisticated AI architecture that understands context, maintains consistency, and produces genuinely valuable outputs that match Amey's standards.
Genny - An Intelligent Knowledge Engine
"We're kind of breaking the mould a bit with what's possible with AI. Even Microsoft is still experimenting with these things."
Molly Bland
FOIL, Project Lead Engineer
The results
Efficiency, Quality, and Permanent Capability
95% Time Reduction
Tasks that previously required 4 days now complete in 30 minutes – freeing experienced talent for strategic, high-value work.
Democratised Expertise
Every bid writer can now leverage Amey's collective intelligence. Best practices and proven approaches that were previously locked in individual silos are accessible to everyone.
80% Content Automation
Gennie could handle the majority of initial tender drafting, including scope analysis, answer planning, and contextualised content creation.
Strategic Focus
Amey’s experts can spend their time on what truly supports their clients: interviewing experts, extracting innovative solutions, and adding genuine differentiators.
100% Knowledge Retention
Expertise stays permanently accessible within Amey's organisation, creating sustainable competitive advantage that grows stronger with each project.
Human-Centric Innovation
The AI handles repetitive tasks, enabling teams to focus on bold, creative problem-solving.
"We're human-centric now and AI is enabling that, which means we have more time to be bold, creative and innovative, and we can solve even higher complex problems."
Rob Curley, Head of Risk, Amey
Key Takeaways for Leaders
1. Data is your biggest asset, if you can access it Amey's millions of documents represented massive potential value. The challenge wasn't having the data – it was making it usable when it mattered.
2. Standard AI tools won't solve complex enterprise challenges Off-the-shelf solutions lack the sophistication to understand your unique context, expertise, and requirements.
3. True transformation requires partnership, not vendors Building sustainable capability demands collaborators who embed with your teams and transfer knowledge, not those who create dependencies.
4. Strategic thinking must precede technology deployment Understanding the problem you're solving is more important than rushing to implement the latest AI tools.
5. Innovation is incremental and ongoing The technology landscape evolves rapidly. Success comes from partners who stay ahead of the curve and build foundations that can evolve with you.