Overview
Nexus AI is NextStage’s global AI assistant. It is designed to help GovCon teams work faster across business development, capture, proposal, and pursuit management workflows.
Nexus is context-aware, which means it meets you where you are in NextStage. Whether you are reviewing a pipeline, analyzing an opportunity, working on a proposal, reviewing past performance, or looking at personnel records, Nexus can use the available workspace context to provide more relevant support.
You can use Nexus to:
Ask questions about your workspace
Analyze opportunities
Summarize documents
Draft and refine content
Upload files for review
Generate strategy inputs
Develop win themes
Support solutioning and technical approach development
Tailor past performance examples
Organize pursuit information
Identify risks, gaps, and next steps
Nexus does more than answer questions. Teams can prompt it to analyze, summarize, draft, refine, organize, and guide work across the pursuit lifecycle using the context already available in NextStage.
Opening Nexus AI
Nexus AI is available from the left navigation bar inside NextStage.
To open Nexus:
Navigate to the area of NextStage where you want support.
Select Nexus AI from the left navigation bar.
Nexus will open as a panel on the right side of your workspace.
The panel allows you to continue viewing your pipeline, opportunity, proposal, or other workspace area while interacting with Nexus.
At the top of the Nexus panel, you will see the current context Nexus is using. For example, if you are viewing a pipeline, Nexus may show:
Context: Pipeline / [Workspace Name]
This helps you understand what part of NextStage Nexus is referencing.
Starting a New Chat
To begin, select New chat.
When you start a new chat, Nexus may display recommended prompt options based on where you are in NextStage. These suggested prompts are designed to help you get started quickly with common tasks for that area of the platform.
For example, from a Pipeline view, Nexus may recommend prompts such as:
Build View
Design a custom filtered view of your pipeline opportunities.
Weekly Summary
Recap weekly pipeline changes, including opportunity movement, notes added, and health trends.
You are not limited to the suggested prompts. You can type your own question, request, or instruction into the message box at any time.
Nexus Meets You Where You Are
Nexus recommendations change depending on where you are in NextStage.
For example:
If you open Nexus from a pipeline, it can help summarize pipeline health, identify stalled opportunities, or recommend filtered views.
If you open Nexus from an opportunity, it can help summarize the opportunity, assess fit, identify risks, or support bid/no-bid analysis.
If you open Nexus from a proposal, it can help draft content, refine responses, identify compliance concerns, or support proposal strategy.
If you open Nexus from past performance or personnel areas, it can help compare records against opportunity requirements and identify strengths or gaps.
You can use a suggested prompt, edit it before sending, upload a document, or write your own prompt from scratch.
Uploading Documents to Nexus
You can also upload documents directly into a Nexus chat. This is useful when you want Nexus to review, summarize, compare, or help draft content based on a specific file.
To upload a document:
Open Nexus AI.
Start a New chat or continue an existing chat.
Select the attachment icon in the message box.
Choose the file you want Nexus to use.
Enter your prompt and send the message.
Examples of documents you may want to upload include:
Solicitation documents
RFP, RFQ, RFI, or Sources Sought files
SOW, PWS, or SOO documents
Amendment documents
Draft proposal sections
Capability statements
Past performance writeups
Resumes or key personnel documents
Customer briefing materials
Internal capture notes
Once uploaded, you can ask Nexus to work with the document.
Example prompts:
Summarize this document and identify the key response requirements.
What are the most important compliance items in this RFP?
Compare this amendment to the original solicitation and summarize what changed.
Review this draft response and suggest improvements for clarity, compliance, and customer alignment.
Extract potential win themes from this document.
Identify risks, gaps, or missing information we should address before submitting.
Uploaded documents give Nexus additional information to consider in the current chat. Nexus can also use relevant context already available in NextStage, depending on where you are working and what information is available in the workspace.
Using Your Own Prompts
Nexus supports open-ended prompting, so you can ask questions or give instructions in plain language. You do not need to use a specific prompt format.
For best results, include:
What you want Nexus to do
What information it should consider
The format you want back
Any constraints, such as page limits, tone, compliance focus, or customer priorities
Example:
Review this opportunity and provide a bid/no-bid recommendation. Consider our past performance, customer fit, likely competition, and any risks that could affect our ability to win. Return the answer as a short decision brief with recommendation, rationale, risks, and next steps.
Example Nexus Prompts by Workflow Area
Pipeline and Opportunity Management
Use Nexus to review pipeline health, prioritize work, and identify opportunities that need attention.
Example prompts:
What opportunities in this pipeline appear stalled or at risk?
Which opportunities have upcoming deadlines that need attention?
Summarize this pipeline and identify where my team should focus first.
Identify the top five opportunities my team should prioritize this week.
Create a filtered view of opportunities with upcoming proposal deadlines.
Identify opportunities that may need a bid/no-bid review.
Summarize recent pipeline changes, including new opportunities, stage movement, notes, and health trends.
Opportunity Qualification
Use Nexus to support opportunity review and early pursuit decisions.
Example prompts:
Summarize this opportunity and identify the key decision points for our team.
Create a short qualification summary for this opportunity.
Assess whether this opportunity appears to be a good fit for our company.
Identify major risks, gaps, and unknowns that could impact our ability to win.
What questions should we answer before making a bid/no-bid decision?
Create a bid/no-bid recommendation using the opportunity context, customer fit, past performance alignment, likely competition, and proposal timeline.
Capture Strategy
Use Nexus to support capture planning, positioning, and strategy development.
Example prompts:
Identify likely customer priorities based on this opportunity information.
Generate potential win themes for this opportunity.
Identify gaps in our current positioning.
Create a capture strategy outline for this opportunity.
Recommend customer hot buttons and how we should address them.
Identify what matters most to the customer and how we should position our solution.
Create a list of capture actions we should complete before RFP release.
Competitive Intelligence
Use Nexus to think through likely competitors, incumbent positioning, and differentiation.
Example prompts:
Who are the likely competitors for this opportunity?
What strengths and weaknesses might the incumbent have?
How should we differentiate our solution?
Identify potential competitor positioning and recommend how we should respond.
What gaps or vulnerabilities may exist in the incumbent’s position?
Create a competitive strategy brief for this opportunity.
Proposal Development
Use Nexus to draft, review, and strengthen proposal content.
Example prompts:
Draft an executive summary based on the opportunity context and our win themes.
Review this section for compliance, clarity, and customer focus.
Rewrite this response to sound more direct and benefits-focused.
Identify where this proposal response may be weak or unsupported.
Create writer guidance for this proposal section.
Strengthen this draft so it better reflects the customer’s priorities and our differentiators.
Review this response and identify any claims that need stronger proof points.
Compliance and Requirements
Use Nexus to review solicitation requirements, identify key instructions, and support proposal planning.
Example prompts:
Summarize the major compliance requirements for this solicitation.
Identify submission instructions, formatting requirements, and due dates.
What requirements should be addressed in the proposal response?
Identify any ambiguous or high-risk requirements.
Extract key proposal instructions from this document.
Identify potential compliance risks we should review before submission.
Win Themes
Use Nexus to help develop, refine, and validate win themes based on the opportunity, customer priorities, solution approach, past performance, and competitive positioning.
Example prompts:
Generate three potential win themes for this opportunity. Each win theme should connect to a customer priority, our differentiator, and a proof point.
Review these draft win themes and strengthen them so they are more customer-focused, specific, and defensible.
Identify likely customer hot buttons for this opportunity and recommend win themes that align to them.
Create win themes based on the solicitation requirements, our capabilities, and our relevant past performance.
Identify which win themes are strongest and which need better evidence or clearer differentiation.
Turn these differentiators into proposal-ready win themes with supporting proof points.
Create a win theme table with columns for customer priority, win theme, differentiator, proof point, and where to reinforce it in the proposal.
Review this opportunity and recommend how we should position ourselves to stand out from the incumbent or likely competitors.
Identify gaps in our current win themes and recommend what additional proof points, metrics, or examples we should add.
Rewrite these win themes so they are more outcome-focused and tied to mission impact.
Personnel and Resumes
Use Nexus to compare personnel qualifications against opportunity requirements.
Example prompts:
Compare this resume against the key personnel requirements.
Identify strengths, gaps, and risks for this proposed key person.
Summarize this resume for a proposal response.
Draft a key personnel summary tailored to this role.
Identify where this resume may need stronger alignment to the RFP requirements.
Identify personnel or resumes in the workspace that appear to align with the RFP requirements.
Solutioning and Technical Approach
Use Nexus to support early solution development, technical approach planning, task area analysis, and proposal response strategy.
Example prompts:
Summarize the technical requirements for this opportunity and organize them into major solution areas.
Create a draft technical approach outline based on the PWS, SOW, or SOO requirements.
Identify the major task areas in this solicitation and recommend how we should structure our solution response.
Develop a solution approach that addresses the customer’s requirements, likely pain points, and mission priorities.
Identify solution gaps, risks, assumptions, and dependencies based on the solicitation requirements.
Create a table mapping each major requirement to our proposed solution approach, relevant capability, and proof point.
Recommend how we should describe our management approach for this opportunity.
Identify areas where our solution needs more detail, stronger evidence, or clearer customer benefits.
Draft a technical approach section for this task area using the opportunity context, win themes, and known capabilities.
Review this solution approach and identify where it may be too generic, noncompliant, or weakly aligned to the customer’s priorities.
Create writer guidance for each technical task area, including key points to address, customer priorities, proof points, and compliance reminders.
Identify where innovation, efficiency, automation, staffing, or transition strategy should be emphasized in the solution.
Past Performance
Use Nexus to help identify, compare, tailor, and strengthen past performance examples for a specific opportunity.
Example prompts:
Recommend which past performance examples best align to this opportunity.
Compare our past performance records against the opportunity requirements and identify the strongest matches.
Create a past performance comparison table with columns for contract, customer, scope alignment, relevance, strengths, gaps, and recommended use.
Draft a past performance summary tailored to this opportunity and customer.
Identify proof points from this past performance record that support our win themes.
Which past performance examples would be most relevant for this customer, scope, contract type, and technical requirements?
Review this past performance writeup and make it more relevant to the current opportunity.
Identify where this past performance example needs stronger metrics, outcomes, or customer impact.
Create a relevance statement explaining why this past performance example is applicable to the solicitation requirements.
Map this past performance example to the major PWS or SOW task areas.
Identify potential weaknesses or gaps in this past performance example and recommend how to mitigate them.
Rewrite this past performance summary to emphasize mission impact, technical similarity, scale, complexity, and results.
Document Review and Summarization
Use Nexus to quickly understand uploaded or workspace documents.
Example prompts:
Summarize this document in plain language.
Identify the most important requirements in this document.
Pull out key dates, deadlines, and submission instructions.
Create a one-page briefing summary from this document.
Identify risks, assumptions, dependencies, and open questions.
Summarize this document for a capture manager.
Prompting Best Practices
For stronger Nexus responses, try to be specific about the result you want.
Instead of: Tell me about this opportunity.
Try: Summarize this opportunity for a bid/no-bid discussion. Include customer, scope, due date, likely fit, major risks, and recommended next steps.
Instead of: Review this proposal.
Try: Review this proposal section for compliance, clarity, customer focus, and strength of proof points. Return the response as a table with issue, why it matters, and recommended improvement.
Instead of: Help with win themes.
Try: Generate three potential win themes for this opportunity. Each win theme should connect to a customer priority, our differentiator, and a proof point from our past performance or capabilities.
Tips for Better Results
Start from the area of NextStage most relevant to your question.
Use the recommended prompts when you want a quick starting point.
Write your own prompt when you need something specific.
Upload documents when you want Nexus to analyze a file directly.
Tell Nexus what format you want back, such as a table, summary, checklist, brief, or draft section.
Include constraints, such as page limits, customer priorities, tone, or compliance focus.
Review AI-generated outputs before using them in customer-facing or proposal-ready materials.
Important Note
Nexus is designed to support your team’s work, not replace human review. Always review AI-generated content for accuracy, compliance, customer alignment, and final submission readiness.
For proposal responses, use Nexus as a strategy, drafting, review, and refinement partner. Your proposal team should still validate all requirements, instructions, assumptions, and final content before submission.