AI Compliance Disclosure — QuickTenders

Last updated: 1 June 2026

Thuthu (Pty) Ltd t/a QuickTenders Registration Number: 2025/102758/07

Effective Date: 1 June 2026 · Last updated: 23 September 2026

Overview

QuickTenders uses artificial intelligence to help South African businesses prepare stronger, more accurate tender applications. This disclosure explains exactly how AI is used in the platform, what data is shared with AI providers, what the AI does and does not do, and what your responsibilities are when using AI-assisted features.

AI Providers We Use

QuickTenders uses two third-party AI providers. Both are based in the United States and process data outside South Africa; see our Privacy Policy (International Transfers) and POPIA Compliance Statement.

Anthropic (Claude) — used for written and reasoning tasks including:

Writing and improving tender application sections
Compliance checking of draft submissions
Go/No-Go analysis (should you bid on this tender?)
AI Copilot general question answering about tenders, compliance, and procurement
Business plan assistance for funding applications

Google (Gemini) — used for document reading and classification, including:

Classifying documents you upload to the Document Vault
Reading your uploaded company and compliance documents to extract details such as the entity name, certificate numbers, issue and expiry dates, and the information used to build your Company Brain — from text we extract ourselves, never from the file (see below)
Reading published tender documents to extract requirements, dates and forms

Which provider handles a given request can change

Which provider processes a request is set by our system configuration, not chosen per customer. Two things follow, and we state them plainly:

We may change the provider assigned to a category of processing. Our test environment currently runs section writing on Google (Gemini) rather than Anthropic.
We are building an automatic fallback: if the assigned provider is unavailable (an outage, a timeout, or a rate limit), the request may be sent to the other provider so your work is not blocked. Where a section of your bid is written by the fallback provider, the workspace tells you so and marks that section until you accept or edit it. This fallback is not currently enabled for live customer accounts; this disclosure will be updated when it is.

What Data Is Sent to AI Providers

When you use a feature that relies on AI, the following may be sent to the relevant provider:

For writing and reasoning features (Anthropic):

The text or content you have written or asked us to work on
Information from your business profile — company name, registration number, CSD number, province, sector, B-BBEE level, CIDB grade, turnover band, years in business, services description
Your key personnel records (names, roles, qualifications) and project references (client names, descriptions) where the section calls for them
The tender's title, description, requirements and evaluation criteria
Your answers to the questions we ask about that specific bid, and your own instructions

For reading your company and compliance documents (Google):

Text we extract ourselves, not the file. Your document is read on our own systems, the text is taken from it, every value shaped like a South African identity number is removed, and only that text is sent.

The file itself is not transmitted. This covers compliance and company documents such as CIPC registration documents, CSD reports, B-BBEE certificates and affidavits, tax clearance (TCS PIN) letters, CIDB, NHBRC, COIDA, OHS and ECSA certificates, bank confirmation letters and financial documents. Where the extracted result needs repair, the same extracted text may also be passed to Anthropic.

If we cannot take text from a document — because it is a scan or photograph, because it cannot be read, or because it is a file type we cannot check — we do not send it at all. Automatic reading is declined for that document and we tell you so. The document stays on file and stays usable; you enter its details yourself.

For reading published tender documents (Google):

The tender document file, so its requirements, dates and forms can be read

These are the buyer's procurement documents rather than your company records, and they are sent as files. This includes a tender document you upload yourself: we treat it as a tender document, not as one of your company records, so it is not put through the text-only path described above.

What is NOT sent to AI providers:

Your payment or card details
Your password or login credentials
Other customers' data
Your billing history

Director identity numbers. Identity numbers you enter for directors are held in your account and are used to complete the SBD 4 declaration form where a tender requires it. They are not included in the information sent to the AI providers that write your bid content. A compliance document you upload may itself contain an identity number — see "Documents that contain identity numbers" below.

Documents that contain identity numbers

Some documents, particularly CIPC registration documents, contain directors' South African identity numbers. The file is no longer transmitted.

What happens instead, for every company and compliance document:

The document is read on our own systems and its text extracted there.
Every value shaped like a South African identity number is removed from that text, and the removal is confirmed against the number's own check digit.
The exact text about to be sent is checked immediately before it leaves. If an identity number is found in it, the transmission is refused rather than sent.
If text cannot be extracted at all — a scanned or photographed page carries none — nothing is sent. Automatic reading is declined, and the document remains stored and usable.

We chose this over covering the numbers in the file. A black box drawn over an identity number in a PDF leaves the number fully recoverable from the file, and a PDF's contents are compressed, so a file cannot be meaningfully checked before sending. Text we extracted ourselves can be checked completely.

The limits of this, stated plainly. Declining to read scanned documents means less is filled in for you automatically from them. Published tender documents, including a tender document you upload yourself, are sent as files — see above. And the check finds values in the shape of a South African identity number; another country's identity number is not recognised by it.

We do not treat a change to this disclosure as a substitute for a technical control.

How AI Providers Use Your Data

Our AI providers process what we send them under their own published terms and data processing agreements, which we are contractually subject to and which may change.

What we can state:

Each AI request is processed independently. The AI does not carry memory of your previous requests between sessions.
Providers log requests for a limited period for abuse detection, under their own terms.
Data shared with AI providers is subject to their respective data processing agreements and privacy policies.

On training. Whether a provider may use submitted content to develop its products depends on the service tier the request is made under, and the providers' terms differ:

Anthropic's commercial terms state that Anthropic may not train models on customer content submitted through the API.
Google's Gemini API terms distinguish paid from unpaid use. On paid use, Google states it does not use prompts or responses to improve its products. On unpaid use, Google states that submitted content is used to provide, improve and develop Google products and that human reviewers may read it.

We therefore do not make a blanket claim that no AI processing is ever used for training. Where a specific service we use is on terms that exclude training, that exclusion applies; where we have not established it for a given provider and tier, we will not assert it. If you need written confirmation of the position for your own compliance file, contact us at the address below.

What AI Does in QuickTenders

AI features in QuickTenders are tools to assist you — they do not act autonomously. Specifically:

AI Copilot

Answers your questions about South African government procurement, tender requirements, compliance obligations, and platform features. Responses are informational and should not be treated as legal or professional procurement advice.

Write This Section

Generates a first draft of a specific tender application section (such as the Cover Letter, Methodology, or Company Profile) based on your business profile and the tender's requirements. The draft is placed in the editor for your review and editing — it is not submitted anywhere.

Improve

Takes text you have written and suggests improvements to clarity, completeness, and alignment with the tender's requirements. All suggestions must be reviewed and accepted by you.

Compliance Check

Reviews your draft submission against the tender's stated requirements and flags potential gaps or issues. This is an indicative check only — it does not guarantee compliance and does not replace your own review or the review of a qualified procurement professional.

Go/No-Go Analysis

Provides an indicative assessment of whether your business is well-positioned to win a specific tender, based on your profile data and the tender's visible requirements. This is an advisory tool only — it is not a guarantee of outcome, and it does not account for factors not visible in the structured tender data (such as evaluation committee preferences, existing relationships, or information contained only in attached tender documents).

AI Compliance Check (Workspace)

Reviews the content of your Workspace submission for procedural and content compliance issues. Same limitations as Compliance Check above apply.

Business Plan AI Assist (Funding)

Helps you structure your business plan sections for SEFA, NEF, or IDC funding applications. The AI helps with structure and framing — it does not generate financial projections or invent numbers. You are responsible for providing accurate financial information.

What AI Does NOT Do

AI does not submit tender applications on your behalf — all submissions require your explicit action
AI does not make final decisions about your compliance status, eligibility, or application outcome
AI does not verify the accuracy or authenticity of your credentials — reading a certificate is not confirmation that it is valid
AI does not decide your compliance status; it extracts information that you and our rules then act on
AI does not guarantee that content it generates will meet any specific tender's requirements or pass evaluation
AI does not replace professional legal, financial, or procurement advice

Your Responsibilities

When using AI-assisted features in QuickTenders:

You are responsible for reviewing all AI-generated content before using it in a tender application
You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and truthfulness of all content submitted in tender applications, whether AI-assisted or not
You must not submit AI-generated content that you know to be false, misleading, or misrepresentative
You should treat AI outputs as a starting point, not a finished product — editing, verification, and professional judgment remain your responsibility
AI Copilot responses and compliance checks are informational tools, not professional advice

Accuracy and Limitations

AI models can make mistakes. Specific limitations relevant to tender applications:

AI may generate content that sounds plausible but is factually incorrect
The AI that writes your bid sections works from your profile, your records and the tender information we hold — it does not read the tender's attached PDFs at the moment it writes, so a requirement that exists only inside an attachment may not be reflected
AI compliance checks are based on the structured data available to the platform, with the same limitation
Information extracted from an uploaded document can be misread, and an extracted expiry date or certificate number should be checked before you rely on it
Go/No-Go analysis is based on your profile data and the structured tender information available to the platform — it cannot account for all factors that influence tender outcomes

Always verify factual claims, regulatory requirements, and financial figures before submitting any tender application or funding application.

Updates to This Disclosure

As AI capabilities and our use of AI evolve, we will update this disclosure. Material changes will be communicated via email or in-platform notice.

Contact

For questions about how AI is used in QuickTenders:

Thuthu (Pty) Ltd t/a QuickTenders Email: info@getquicktenders.com Website: www.getquicktenders.com/ai-compliance Address: 23 Fielding Crescent, Mondeor Green, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2091