Using AI increases your chances of winning awards, but only if you know when to use it.
Earlier this month, New Model Adviser’s Top 100 2025 and the Professional Adviser Awards 2026 opened for entries. If entering awards is part of your marketing strategy, you should consider putting your name in the hat for both.
In this blog, we’ll explain 10 ways you could use AI to improve your entry and boost your chances of success.
However, before we do, let’s deal with the elephant in the room: should you use AI to actually write the entry?
Speaking as both an entrant and a judge (not to the same awards, obviously!), I don’t believe you should.
In a recent LinkedIn poll, 54% of people said that judges should penalise entries written by AI. I’m not going that far. However, I do feel that entries written by ChatGPT or similar will lack personality, could miss vital information, and might alienate the judges.
I also believe there are many more effective ways to use AI in the entry process. Here are 10:
#1. Weed out typos and poor grammar
An error-strewn entry won’t impress the judges. However, finding someone to proofread your entry carefully can be hard, especially for smaller businesses.
AI tools like Grammarly can help solve the problem by polishing your entry while ensuring that simple mistakes don’t slip through.
#2. Using AI to make sure you’ve included your key differentiators
Naturally, there’ll be key points you want to make in your entry. However, remembering them all isn’t easy. That’s why we recommend all firms create a Differentiator List to use in their marketing.
When it comes to awards, you can provide the criteria and your Differentiator List to ChatGPT and ask it to review your submission, identifying the differentiators you’ve missed that are relevant to the entry criteria.
#3. Testing against the entry criteria
As Ian McKenna said in a comment on the LinkedIn poll I mentioned earlier, many award entries fail to answer the question or meet the criteria.
To avoid this mistake, ask AI to test your entry against the questions and criteria, and provide feedback on where improvements can be made.
#4. Staying within the maximum word count
Fitting everything you want to say into the allowable number of words can be tough.
AI is your friend here because it can help cut the waffle so you don’t overshoot the word limit, but without losing the key points you want to include.
#5. Back testing against previous entries
If you’ve previously been successful in awards, get AI to compare the successful entries with the entry you’re currently writing.
#6. Designing supporting documents
It’s common for award entries to allow supporting documents to be submitted alongside the written answers. In my experience as a judge, entrants often fail to do this or give generic documents such as a brochure or a client agreement.
That’s a waste of time and an opportunity missed.
Your supporting documents provide an opportunity to expand on the points made in the main entry, give evidence to support claims, and reinforce some of the key points on your Differentiator List. Ideally, the supporting documents should be attractively designed and easy for the judges to read. And that’s where AI can help.
#7. Generating testimonial prompts
Some awards, most notably Moneyfacts, require testimonials to support the entry.
AI can help you draft a thoughtful email asking your clients, professional connections, and other centres of influence to provide a testimonial.
#8. Getting feedback on your initial drafts
Finding colleagues who have the time to read the entry and provide feedback can be tough. So to make their life easier, get ChatGPT to make a bullet point list of the key points you’ve made in the entry and ask your colleagues to check if there’s anything obvious that you’ve missed.
#9. Summarising impact data
The best awards are supported by evidence and data. However, presenting it to judges, whose eyes are glazing over, in an easy-to-read format, can be challenging.
AI can help here by taking raw data and presenting it in a punchy, impactful, easy-to-read summary.
#10. Planning for a follow-up interview
Some awards, for example, those run by the Personal Finance Society (PFS) and Money Marketing, have an interview stage after the written entry.
Preparation is key here, but that’s easier if you know what you’ll be asked. AI can help you prepare by suggesting questions you might be asked based on the criteria, your entry, and what’s happening in the wider profession.
AI doesn’t have to write your entry to boost your chances of success
If you use AI effectively, it can boost your chances of winning, but that doesn’t mean you should use it to write your entry. Instead, write the entry yourself and then use these ideas to plan, polish, and prepare.
If you’re entering either the New Model Adviser Top 100 or Professional Adviser Awards over the next few weeks, I hope these 10 tips help.
If you use them successfully, please let me know; we’d love to hear how you get on.
