Fuel tenders often only appear simple at first glance. A company needs to quickly evaluate pricing, logistics, gas station requirements, documentation terms, competition, and its own chances of winning. If handled manually, teams spend hours or days just deciding whether to participate.

The Association sought to understand this process in depth and reached out to SmartTender to discuss their AI ecosystem, practical applications, and business results. We spoke with Serhii Sahun, CEO of SmartTender.

— Let’s start with the basics. What does SmartTender do?

SmartTender is an accredited platform for the Prozorro and Prozorro.Sales systems, as well as a procurement platform for businesses. Our uniqueness lies in our proprietary IT developments. We create analytics, electronic document management, and, of course, AI tools to make the bidding process as transparent and fast as possible.

— Tell us about your AI tools. Do you buy ready-made solutions or develop them in-house?

We do not buy “boxed” AI solutions; we develop our products independently. However, we don’t reinvent the wheel. We act strategically—we take the best and most powerful LLMs existing globally but completely “re-engineer” them, embedding our unique experience, algorithms, and logic.

Procurement is an ultra-complex niche with a multitude of legal nuances. This approach allows us to solve our clients’ specific “pain points.”

Our AI ecosystem currently includes:

• Analytical Module: A combination of AI analytics, BI, and CRM for rapid market analysis. It helps track prices, competitors, and new customers, assess market share, and generate expected cost estimates.
• SmartCheck AI: An AI tool for tender documentation analysis. It automatically finds client requirements, forms a checklist, and links each point to the relevant section of the documentation, reducing the risk of errors.
• Smartik: A 24/7 AI assistant chatbot that explains participation rules, assists with the platform, and helps find relevant tenders.
• AI Tool for Gas Stations: A solution for the fuel market that automatically verifies gas station location requirements. The tool builds a map and instantly shows whether the network meets the tender’s terms.

We aren’t stopping there. We will soon introduce new solutions to further strengthen teams and help businesses operate even more efficiently.

— How do these tools interact in the real life of a fuel supplier?

In the fuel business, the decision to participate in a tender involves several checks. First, the company must determine if the tender is relevant (customer, volume, supply terms, expected cost, competition). This is the Analytical Module’sdomain.

Next, the team checks the documentation. SmartCheck AI structures the client’s requirements into a checklist, ensuring no terms affecting qualification are missed.

Separately, there is the gas station requirement check. If the documentation specifies that a station must be within a certain radius, the system automatically extracts this, builds a map, and shows if the network qualifies. As a result, the team quickly moves from “we found a tender” to “we know whether it’s worth entering, at what price, and what risks exist.”

— What specific problems does your analytics module solve?

It solves three practical tasks:

1. Price: Seeing at what prices contracts were actually signed and identifying regional market fluctuations.
2. Competition: Seeing who consistently wins fuel tenders, with which customers, and in which regions.
3. Lost Opportunities: Identifying procurements the company missed or segments where competitors are more active.

For an executive, this leads to strategic decisions: where to increase participation, where margins are being lost, and where tendering isn’t worth the team’s resources.

— How does this differ from Excel or standard BI systems?

Excel and BI work only when you already have cleaned, structured data. In procurement, finding relevant procedures, extracting positions, and comparing prices by region and customer is the hardest part. The SmartTender module is pre-built with the logic of procurement, working directly with Prozorro data, so teams don’t have to build their own databases manually.

— Who, besides procurement managers, benefits from this module?

• CEO: Sees market share, growth regions, and competitor activity.
• Commercial Director: Evaluates where to scale and which price corridors are working.
• Tender Department: Quickly filters relevant tenders and verifies documentation.
• Financial Team: Compares market dynamics, volume, and profitability.

— Is AI relevant for small and medium-sized businesses?

For SMEs, AI is a tool to scale without expanding staff. A small supplier often combines sales, documentation, and tender participation in one role. Automation here provides a very applied result: finding a relevant tender faster and ensuring no opportunities are lost due to a lack of time. Our case study with YASNO showed that even giants, using SmartCheck AI, increased their volume of processed tenders by over 50% in two years.

— What is the first step for a company wanting to try these tools?

The best way is to check it on your own data. During a demo, we can show:

• Which fuel tenders were potentially relevant for your network;
• Where competitors won in your categories or regions;
• Which tenders you might have missed.

Often, after such an analysis, companies realize they can react faster and choose tenders more accurately. The best first step is to sign up for a demo and see how the analytical module works on your specific data. You can do that here.

Today, procurement digitalization is no longer a “future” question—it is a competitive necessity. For the fuel market, where speed and risk assessment are paramount, AI solutions are shifting from “extra tech” to essential business tools.