Lately, a new pattern has emerged.

A team-building RFP is sent out. It’s detailed. It prescribes specific activities. It asks for flowcharts, timing, scoring mechanisms, and predicted outcomes. It’s clear that someone opened an AI tool, typed “write a team-building RFP for X people,” and sent the result straight to vendors without a second thought.

Layer 1: The Template Problem

Typically, a coordinator gets tasked with finding team-building activities for their organization. They don’t have time to research. They don’t have a budget allocated yet. They just need options. So, they turn to AI. They ask it to write an RFP. The tool generates a template that sounds plausible: Corporate Olympics, trust exercises, maybe a scavenger hunt. It includes timing, scoring, and activity descriptions, everything that looks like a professional spec.

The coordinator reads it, thinks “that looks right,” and sends it to vendors.

Nobody has stopped to ask the actual questions. What is your team working through? What does success look like? What are you trying to shift in how people work together?

The real diagnostic work should happen first. Then the RFP gets written around the actual answer.

Layer 2: The Corporate Olympics Problem

Here’s a specific example that keeps showing up in these AI-generated RFPs: Corporate Olympics. The tool loves this format. It’s easy to visualize. It’s simple to run. And it sounds impressive in an RFP.

It’s also one of the highest-risk structures for building resentment instead of culture.

Corporate Olympics create winners and losers. They surface hierarchy. They rank people. And often, people walk away feeling positioned against their colleagues instead of connected to them.

As someone who has worked with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, preparing athletes for multiple Olympic Games, Marc Merulla of Team Building Montreal has this to add:

“I respect what real competition produces. That is exactly why I work hard to steer most corporate teams away from it. You don’t need Olympic-style competition. You need something designed around your actual team dynamics, your culture, and what you’re really trying to shift.”

Most AI-generated RFPs don’t even consider that question.

Here’s What Actually Works

Before writing a team building RFP, reach out. Share the size of the group  and at least one thing you know about what your people need.

Let the conversation happen first. That is where the real customization starts. That is where professional team building companies figure out whether your team needs bonding, building, development, or a combination that no template would have surfaced. That conversation produces a brief worth responding to.

The AI-generated RFP feels efficient. It wastes time, locks in the wrong answer, and doesn’t offer anything tailored to your needs.

In the end, the wrong event will waste everyone’s time, your money and actually do the opposite of what you set out to do.

About Team Building Montreal

Team Building Montreal, Ottawa & Quebec (TBMOQ) has been designing and delivering corporate team-building experiences since 1998. The company’s Transformational Fun methodology moves organizations through three stages — Team Bonding, Team Building, and Team Development — strengthening connection, effectiveness, and capability. TBMOQ has partnered with organizations including the Canadian Olympic Committee, Desjardins, Hydro-Québec, Google, Air Canada, RBC, and Bell to create memorable, results-driven programs.

Learn more at tbmoq.ca or follow them on LinkedIn for more insights.