AI Features for Applicants
Plinth includes AI-powered features that help applicants complete their applications more effectively. These tools save time, improve answer quality, and reduce the barrier to applying — especially for smaller organisations with limited resources.
Why Enable AI Features?
Lower barriers — Smaller organisations can compete with those who have professional bid writers
Better applications — Guidance helps applicants give you what you need to make decisions
Time savings — Applicants spend less time struggling with how to answer
Reduced back-and-forth — Better first-time submissions mean fewer clarification requests
Auto-Fill from Documents
Applicants can upload previous applications or impact reports, and AI will suggest answers to your form questions based on that content.
How It Works
Applicant clicks Auto-fill from documents in the application form
They upload previous grant applications, impact reports, or organisational documents (PDF or Word)
AI analyses the documents and identifies relevant content for each question
Matching content is suggested for appropriate questions
Suggested answers are highlighted in green for the applicant to review
Applicant can accept, modify, or reject each suggestion
What AI Looks For
The AI matches document content to questions based on:
Question topic and wording
Relevance of document content
Question type (text, multiple choice, table)
It assigns confidence levels to suggestions:
High confidence — Clear match, likely to be useful
Medium confidence — Probable match, worth reviewing
Low confidence — Possible match, may need significant editing
Only high and medium confidence suggestions are automatically applied to empty fields.
Supported Question Types
Text Input
Paragraph Text
Multiple Choice / Dropdown
Tables
Important Notes
Auto-fill only populates empty fields — existing answers are never overwritten
Applicants must review and edit suggestions to fit your specific questions
Uploaded documents are processed securely and not stored permanently
Maximum file size is 10MB
Enabling Auto-Fill
To enable this feature for your form:
Open your form in the form builder
Click Settings
Find AI Features
Toggle Enable Auto-fill on
Save the form
Smart Feedback
Smart Feedback gives applicants AI-powered suggestions to improve their answers before submitting. Think of it as a friendly reviewer who helps them strengthen their application.
How It Works
Applicant writes their answer to a question
They click Get feedback below their answer
AI analyses their response
Feedback appears with:
Brief reasoning on what could be strengthened
1-2 probing questions to help them improve
Applicant uses the feedback to enhance their answer
What Kind of Feedback?
The AI uses a Socratic approach — asking guiding questions rather than giving direct answers. Examples:
"Consider adding specific numbers to demonstrate the scale of your impact."
"Could you expand on how you'll measure success for this outcome?"
"Have you thought about describing the timeline for these activities?"
This helps applicants think more deeply about their answers without writing the application for them.
Enabling Smart Feedback
Open your form in the form builder
Click Settings
Find AI Features
Toggle Enable Smart Feedback on
Save the form
Tips for Funders
When to Enable These Features
Enable both features when:
You want to encourage applications from smaller organisations
Your questions require detailed, well-structured answers
You're seeing many applications that miss key information
You want to reduce the time spent on clarification requests
Consider disabling when:
You specifically want to test applicants' writing ability
The application is intentionally brief or simple
You're concerned about applications becoming too similar
Combine with Good Form Design
AI features work best when combined with:
Clear questions — Specific questions get better AI suggestions
Helpful descriptions — Question descriptions guide both applicants and AI
Appropriate word limits — Help applicants understand expected length
AI assessment prompts — Tell the AI what you're looking for (see Creating Application Forms)
Privacy and Fairness
How Applicant Data Is Handled
Uploaded documents are processed in real-time and not permanently stored
AI analysis happens securely within the platform
Individual answers are not used to train AI models
Applicants control whether to use these features — they're optional
Fairness Considerations
These features are designed to level the playing field:
Smaller organisations without professional bid writers get support
AI provides general guidance, not funder-specific insider knowledge
All applicants have access to the same tools
Final answers still reflect the applicant's work and voice
Frequently Asked Questions
Will AI write the entire application?
No. Auto-fill suggests content from the applicant's own documents. Smart Feedback asks guiding questions. Both require the applicant to do the actual writing.
Can I tell which applications used AI features?
Not specifically. The tools help applicants improve their answers, but the content still comes from them.
Will all applications become the same?
No. Auto-fill pulls from each applicant's unique documents. Smart Feedback gives personalised guidance based on what they've written. Applications remain distinct.
What if an applicant's documents are poor quality?
Auto-fill will either not suggest content (low confidence) or suggest content that reflects the source material. Applicants still need good source material to get useful suggestions.
Can applicants regenerate feedback?
Yes. If they want different suggestions, they can click to regenerate feedback and get fresh guidance.
Do these features work for all question types?
Auto-fill works for text, paragraph, multiple choice, dropdown, and table questions. Smart Feedback works best for longer text answers where there's enough content to analyse.