Revolutionising Knowledge Management at Amey: An Interview with Rob Curley, Amey Project Director
FOIL partnered with Amey to build "Genny," a bespoke AI-powered Knowledge Bank that revolutionises bid writing by centralising expertise and automating 80% of tender content creation. By creating a centralised repository and intelligent content generation system, the project addressed the critical challenge of how to extract and manage the organisation’s tacit knowledge as data. This enabled knowledge retention across Amey's ecosystem, reducing 4-day tasks to 30 minutes whilst ensuring knowledge remains with Amey for long-term capability building.
What FOIL Did
After experimenting with Copilot and Copilot Studio, Amey recognised they needed a far more sophisticated architecture and deeper AI expertise to achieve their ambitious vision. The project began in Microsoft's AI Labs in Munich, FOIL joined Amey in developing what would become a truly innovative solution. Working within the Microsoft ecosystem, Amey and FOIL designed and built Genny—a complex, bespoke AI Knowledge Bank that goes far beyond standard AI tools. The platform ingests Amey’s best content from its subject matter expert network and associated feedback, creating an intelligent repository that understands Amey's unique context and expertise. Using advanced generative AI architecture, Genny content and responses that truly thinks and speaks like Amey—a level of sophistication impossible with off-the-shelf solutions.
The Impact
The transformation has been remarkable for bid writing teams. Tasks that previously required 4 days now complete in 30 minutes, with the AI handling up to 80% of tender content creation including scope analysis, planning, and initial drafts. This dramatic efficiency gain frees bid writers to focus on strategic work—interviewing experts, extracting innovative solutions, and adding the insight that truly differentiate what they can do for their clients. The platform ensures consistency whilst maintaining Amey's tone of voice and expertise standards.
Most importantly, the knowledge remains permanently accessible within Amey's organisation, creating a sustainable competitive advantage that grows stronger with each project.
— 4 days reduced to 30 minutes Eliminating traditional search barriers and knowledge silos
— Automated repetitive tasks Agent-based infrastructure that continuously evaluates and scores materials
— Amey specific context, beyond Copilot Studio Advanced application of LLMs, Agents, and Azure AI Services to maximise the reliability and accuracy of the output
At FOIL, our mission extends beyond delivering technical solutions - we're committed to ensuring clients own and control their data evolution long after our engagement ends. In this interview, we speak with Rob Curley, Project Director for Genny at Amey, to understand how our partnership approach creates sustainable business value.
Rob, what sparked this ambitious vision and what made you seek FOIL's expertise?
Rob: Amey has a real success story when it comes to Microsoft Copilot. It got me thinking about the opportunity available in capturing and resurfacing the knowledge we have across the business and I spent some time with Damian, our Head of AI and Power Platforms. We initially explored Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio, thinking they might solve our knowledge management challenges. Whilst these are excellent tools, we quickly realised our vision required a far more sophisticated architecture than standard AI solutions could provide. We needed something that could really understand our business context, our language, our expertise - and that demanded a different level of technical complexity.
That's when we connected with FOIL to join us at Microsoft's AI Labs in Munich. From those early conversations, it became clear they also understood not just the technical challenges, but the innovative potential of what we were trying to achieve. Their deep understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem, was the expertise we needed to innovate further
“We initially explored Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio... we quickly realised our vision required a far more sophisticated architecture than standard AI solutions could provide”
This sounds like it required significant innovation. How did you approach building something truly groundbreaking?
Rob: Absolutely - we were venturing into uncharted territory. Honestly, a big part of what made this work was the trust and collaboration we built with FOIL from day one. We established a relationship built on transparency and agility: try, fail, try, win. Both teams had to be comfortable with experimentation because we were creating something that had never been done before.
Our shared innovative thinking and strong data analysis expertise, paired with FOIL’s deep knowledge of the Microsoft stack and our subject matter expertise, made us an unstoppable pairing
It was a true collaboration - FOIL were always up for the challenge and constantly pushed us to think bigger about what we could achieve. When we wanted to push ourselves further to what seemed impossible, their response was consistently "let's find a way to make that work."
“We established a relationship built on transparency and agility: try, fail, try, win. Both teams had to be comfortable with experimentation because we were creating something that had never been done before.”
How important was that collaborative approach to the project's success?
Rob: It was everything. This isn't the kind of project where you can write specifications up front and expect a traditional delivery model to work. The technology is evolving rapidly, the applications are genuinely innovative, and we were creating something bespoke that required constant iteration and refinement.
FOIL's willingness to embrace that agility - to work in true partnership rather than a traditional client-supplier relationship - was crucial. They understood that innovation requires the freedom to experiment, to push boundaries, and sometimes to discover that your first approach isn't the right one. That openness and collaborative spirit enabled us to create something groundbreaking rather than settling for an incremental improvement.
Beyond efficiency gains, what business value has this innovative approach delivered?
Rob: The real value lies in how we've democratised expertise across the organisation. Previously, our best insights were within all corners of Amey and needed to be unlocked - specific people holding crucial knowledge that wasn't accessible to other teams. Now, everyone can leverage our collective intelligence We're seeing more consistent quality across all submissions, better use of our proven approaches, andidentifying our knowledge gaps so we can bid more strategically for opportunities we're genuinely positioned to win.
What sets FOIL's partnership approach apart from traditional technology vendors?
Rob: FOIL's approach is different because they understand that innovation requires genuine partnership, not just technical delivery. They came to the table with deep expertise in what's possible within the Microsoft ecosystem, but more importantly, they were genuinely excited about pushing those boundaries with us and worked with us, and our technical expertise to make it happen.
FOIL embraced the uncertainty and complexity of creating something genuinely new. They met our ambitious requirements and joined us in taking opportunities to innovate and challenge ourselves.
That willingness to iterate, experiment, and push the art of the possible - combined with both our technical expertise - enabled us to create something that's genuinely transformational rather than just another AI tool.
Looking ahead, where do you see opportunities to expand this AI capability?
Rob: We're already exploring how to extend these principles beyond knowledge management. I can envision using AI for post-delivery analysis - examining what differentiates our successful projects from challenging ones to guide future decisions. We're also considering AI-powered bid assessment tools that could act as 'critical friends' to evaluate our proposals before submission. The foundation FOIL has built gives us the confidence and capability to pursue these innovations independently.
“Don’t settle for vendors who want to implement existing solutions - find partners who are excited about creating something entirely new with you.”
What advice would you give to organisations considering similar AI innovation projects?
Rob: Find partners who genuinely understand that innovation can't be delivered through traditional project methodologies. You need collaborators who are excited about exploring the art of the possible, who can bring deep technical expertise whilst being agile enough to pivot when you discover new opportunities.
FOIL's combination of Microsoft ecosystem expertise and willingness to push boundaries enabled us to create something genuinely groundbreaking. Don't settle for vendors who want to implement existing solutions - find partners who are excited about creating something entirely new with you. The technology landscape is evolving so rapidly that incremental improvements aren't enough; you need partners who can help you leapfrog to what's truly possible.
For organisations looking to transform their knowledge management and AI capabilities, FOIL's partnership approach offers a unique, sustainable, and highly effective solution. Get in touch to discover how we can help you own your data evolution.