AI automation for SBIR, STTR, and deep tech teams: what to automate first

What is AI automation for an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech team?

AI automation for an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech team means using AI to run the repeat operations around the research without a person handling every step. That includes milestone and progress reports, registration and deadline reminders, partner and customer follow-up, and the updates that keep funders and prospects informed.

It is different from you or your team using ChatGPT or Claude on their own. A chat assistant drafts something when a person asks. An automation runs on a trigger, such as a milestone date, a new inquiry, or the end of the month, and finishes the task in the systems you already use.

DraftClicks.com sets up four kinds of automation for small technical teams, plus the marketing that feeds them:

• ›Virtual agents answer website and message inquiries from prospective customers, partners, and investors, qualify them, and pass the serious ones to you.
• ›Voice agents answer and return calls, confirm meetings, and handle follow-up outreach.
• ›Automated workflows handle recurring reports, cost and invoice follow-up, vendor and collaborator paperwork, and deadline reminders.
• ›Reporting dashboards keep milestone, spend, and pipeline figures current without someone assembling them.
• ›Marketing: ads on social media and Google search, plus email campaigns for your product, events, and outreach, connected to your list and your follow-up so every click goes somewhere.

Who is this page for?

Small technical teams that hold an SBIR or STTR award, or are building toward one, and other deep tech startups in hardware, software, biotech, or materials. A Phase I or Phase II award is the usual trigger, because that is when the reporting starts while the same few people are still doing the research.

A funded technical team is usually a handful of people. The founder or principal investigator leads the research, answers the program office, tracks spend, and talks to prospective customers, sometimes in the same week. An STTR team also coordinates with a university or research institution on top of that. The repeat operations around the research are where automation gives time back first.

This page is about those operations. It is not about writing proposals, designing the research, or the technical work itself. If you are earlier in the path, the first call is still the place to start.

How do the SBIR and STTR phases work, and are the programs still running?

Yes. Congress reauthorized the SBIR and STTR programs on April 13, 2026, through September 30, 2031, after authority lapsed for about six months. Both programs run in three phases: Phase I proof of concept, Phase II technology development, and Phase III commercialization, which receives no SBIR or STTR funding.

The lengths and amounts are the ranges SBIR.gov shows. Each agency sets its own in its solicitation, so check yours. (SBIR.gov, SBIR.gov apply page)

The SBA reported that S. 3971, the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act, was enacted on April 13, 2026 and reauthorizes SBIR and STTR through September 30, 2031. (SBA) The prior authorization had expired on September 30, 2025. (Crowell)

What is the difference between SBIR and STTR, and what does it change for operations?

SBIR does not require a research partner. STTR requires the small business to partner formally with a not-for-profit research institution, such as a university. At NSF, the small business must receive at least 40% of an STTR budget and the partner at least 30%, and other agencies set their own rules. The extra partner means more coordination to keep on schedule.

• ›SBIR. The small business leads, and there is no research institution partner requirement. At NSF, the small business must receive at least two-thirds of the total budget in Phase I and at least half in Phase II. (NSF Seed Fund)
• ›STTR. The small business issues a subaward to a not-for-profit research institution, and a co-PI leads the effort there. At NSF, the small business must receive at least 40% of the total budget and the partner institution at least 30%. (NSF Seed Fund)
• ›What changes for operations. An STTR team keeps two organizations on one schedule: partner invoices, progress inputs for each report, and the paperwork between the two. Those are repeat steps, which is what automation handles well.

Both programs run in the three phases above. Each agency adds its own rules, so check the solicitation for the split and the partner requirements that apply to you.

Which SBIR, STTR, and deep tech tasks should you automate first?

Start with work that repeats every month, follows clear rules, and is easy to measure in hours saved. For most funded teams that means milestone reports, cost and invoice follow-up, registration and deadline reminders, and inquiry handling.

Your team is already doing this work well. The point is to take the repeat steps off their plates so that time goes to the research and to the relationships only you can hold.

Which SBIR and STTR dates and registrations are worth automating reminders for?

Start with the ones that are fixed and costly to miss: renewing your SAM.gov registration every 365 days, updating your Company Commercialization Report when you apply for a new Phase II award and at the conclusion of one, and the report, milestone, and invoice dates written into your own award.

• ›SAM.gov registration. SBIR.gov says you must have a Unique Entity ID from SAM.gov to receive SBIR and STTR awards, and SAM.gov says you must renew your registration every 365 days to keep it active. (SBIR.gov, SAM.gov)
• ›Company Commercialization Report. SBIR.gov says awardees must update and maintain this report, and that Phase II awardees update it when they apply for new Phase II awards and at the conclusion of a Phase II award. It describes annual updates for at least five years after that as voluntary. (SBIR.gov)
• ›Solicitation closing dates. Each agency publishes its own in the solicitation, and the topics you care about may sit at different agencies on different dates.
• ›Your award's own dates. Progress reports, milestones, and invoices each have a date in your agreement, and those dates are the ones only you can confirm.

A reminder is the simplest automation there is and the one with the clearest payoff: the right person gets the date early, with the steps attached. The reminder points back to the source, and a person confirms the date and does the filing.

How does automation help move from a Phase II award to commercial customers?

Phase III is commercialization, and no SBIR or STTR funding is awarded in it, so the growth has to come from customers, partners, or investors. Automation helps by catching every inquiry, following up on schedule, and keeping a pipeline you can see, so the follow-through does not depend on one person's memory.

SBIR.gov describes Phase III as taking the work to market through the private sector, federal contracting, or both, with no SBIR or STTR funding. (SBIR.gov) The research may be ready before the pipeline is. Four repeat jobs matter most:

• ›Catch every inquiry. A virtual agent or a form answers prospective customers, partners, and investors at any hour and passes the serious ones to you.
• ›Follow up on a schedule. After a demo, a pilot conversation, or a conference, the next touch goes out on its own and stops when they reply.
• ›Keep one pipeline. Every contact, stage, and next step lives in one place you own, so you can see what is moving.
• ›Report to the people who back you. A standing update for program officers, partners, and investors is drafted from current figures for your review.

The research and the deal stay yours. The follow-through is what gets automated.

How do ads and email marketing work together for a deep tech team?

They work best as one system. Ads find people who already know you or look like the people you want to reach, and email follows up and brings them back. In the one campaign we have documented in full, ads to people on and around the client's list worked, ads to cold audiences did not, and email was the engine.

Ads on Facebook and Instagram are bought through Meta. The campaign below was a community food event for a founders' nonprofit, so the goal was seats and gifts, not licensing or contracts. The pattern is the same for a technical team that wants to keep prospects and partners warm after a first conversation:

• ›Retargeting (ads to people who already know you) beat ads to strangers. The cold campaign cost $109 and led to no checkouts, so it was cut. The retargeting campaign cost $233 and drew 105 checkout clicks.
• ›Email did most of the work. Email sold 18 of the 53 orders and $1,790 of the $3,965 total, and a short follow-up to the strongest email was the best email of the campaign.
• ›The tracking showed what worked. Every sale was matched to the emails behind it, so the budget moved to what was working while it still mattered.

DraftClicks.com sets up the ads, the email, the tracking, and the report. Read the case study.

Which platforms can DraftClicks.com run ads on for an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech team?

Any of the major ones. DraftClicks.com sets up the marketing for a product, event, or outreach push on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and on Google search, then connects it to your email list and your follow-up.

Where the ads run depends on where the people you want to reach already are:

• ›Social media ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media platforms reach people who already follow, know, or look like the people you want to reach.
• ›Google search ads reach people who are already searching for what you offer, such as a capability, a product, or a partner.
• ›Email marketing brings back the people the ads found, and tracking shows which ad and which email produced each inquiry.

The numbers on this page come from the one campaign we have documented in full, which ran on Meta (Facebook and Instagram). The setup is the same on any platform: the ads, your list, your follow-up, and the tracking work as one system.

Should you hire a partner, use DIY tools, or hire someone in-house?

Use DIY tools if someone on your team has the time to set them up and keep them running. Use the AI built into your accounting or project software for tasks that live entirely in that system. Bring in a partner when you need working systems across several tools and nobody has the hours to own them.

These are not either-or. Many technical teams use a chat assistant for drafting, their accounting software for billing, and one custom setup for the workflows that cross systems.

Is ChatGPT enough, or do you need automation?

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot are enough for drafting and summarizing, one person at a time. You need automation when the same task has to happen on its own, every time, without someone remembering to ask.

A chat tool will draft a good milestone report when you give it the figures. It will not pull those figures from your systems at the end of every month, send the draft to your principal investigator for approval, and remind you if it is late, unless someone sets that up. That is the difference between a tool and an automation, and it is where the hours come back.

Can an SBIR or STTR team put technical data into AI tools?

Sometimes, but decide the rules before the first upload. Unpublished technical data is the asset you are building, so keep it out of consumer AI tools until you have checked your award terms, your agency's rules, and your own IP plan.

• ›Read your award terms. Look for data, security, and reporting clauses in your agreement, and ask your program office or contracting officer when one is unclear.
• ›Know what the data-rights period covers. SBIR.gov says SBIR and STTR data is protected from disclosure by the participating agencies for not less than 20 years, starting at the Phase I, II, or III award. That protection is about what the agencies may disclose. Which tools your own team uses is a separate decision for you to make. (SBIR.gov)
• ›Defense awards can carry more rules. If your award comes from the Department of Defense, DFARS and CMMC requirements may apply. The government contractors page covers them.
• ›Agree the rules with your research partner. On an STTR project, the partner institution handles the data too, so settle which tools both sides may use before the work starts.
• ›Use business tiers, in your own accounts. Keep technical information in tools that do not train on your data, with every account in your name.

DraftClicks.com is not a law firm and does not give legal, export-control, or compliance advice. We build the automations to your rules: which data goes where, who approves what, and where every record lives.

Can you use AI to write an SBIR or STTR proposal?

It depends on the agency, so read the solicitation. NIH says it will not consider applications, or sections of them, that are substantially developed by AI to be the applicant's original ideas. NSF asks proposers to indicate how generative AI was used and holds them responsible for accuracy. DraftClicks.com does not write proposals.

• ›NIH. Notice NOT-OD-25-132, released July 17, 2025, applies to applications submitted to the September 25, 2025 receipt date and beyond. (NIH)
• ›NSF. Its notice, dated December 14, 2023, encourages proposers to indicate the extent to which generative AI was used and how, and says proposers are responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of their submission. (NSF)
• ›Other agencies. Rules differ and change. Read the current solicitation, and ask the program office when it is unclear.

That is why this page stays on the operations around the award. The proposal and the research are yours. DraftClicks.com sets up the reporting, reminders, follow-up, and marketing around them.

How much does AI automation cost for an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech team?

It depends on your workflows, not on a package. DraftClicks.com does not sell fixed tiers. We scope each project to what is eating your team's time, and the first call is free.

Four things move the cost the most:

• ›How many systems need to connect. Linking your time tracking, accounting, email, forms, and calendar is more work than automating inside one tool.
• ›What kind of work is automated. Written follow-up is simpler than phone calls, or reporting that a funder relies on.
• ›How much reporting and compliance is involved. Anything an award or a review relies on needs accuracy checks and a clear record of what was sent.
• ›How much training your team needs. The goal is that your people run it, so handover time is part of the scope.

The first call runs about 45 minutes. We map where your month goes and rank the opportunities by payoff, and you keep that list whether or not we work together.

How much is it worth to give your team back hours every month? If you want the cheapest option, we're not the right fit. If you want the best option, we are.

How do you start with AI safely?

Write a short AI use policy, pick one high-volume workflow, and measure the hours it saves before you add more. That order keeps AI from spreading as scattered, one-person habits.

1. 01Set the rules first. Decide which technical information can go into which tools, and who approves anything AI sends to a funder, a customer, or an investor. When a clause is unclear, ask your program office or contracting officer.
2. 02Map where the month goes. List the repeat tasks and estimate the monthly hours each one takes.
3. 03Rank by payoff. Automate the task with the most hours saved and the lowest risk to your award.
4. 04Launch with training. Make sure your people know how it works and how to step in.
5. 05Review after 30 days, then add the next automation.

What are the risks of AI automation for an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech team?

The main risks are exposing unpublished technical data, sending inaccurate AI output to a funder or customer, automating something a person must sign, and depending on a vendor. Each one can be managed with clear rules and the right setup.

• ›Data exposure. Keep unpublished technical data out of tools your award terms do not allow, and in business or enterprise tiers that do not train on your data.
• ›Accuracy. Send AI output to a funder, customer, or investor only through templates and rules you have approved, and keep a human review step for figures, invoices, and technical claims.
• ›Signatures and certifications. Keep a person's review and approval on anything that certifies, invoices, or reports to a funding agency. Do not automate the signature.
• ›Lock-in. Require that every account, automation, and record stays in your name.

What do the numbers say about SBIR and STTR awards and AI use?

A funded team works to a defined budget and calendar: SBIR.gov lists Phase I at $50,000 to $275,000 over 6 to 12 months and Phase II at $750,000 to $1.8 million over 24 months. About one in five US businesses used AI in spring 2026, and the smallest firms use it the least.

• ›SBIR.gov lists Phase I as proof of concept, 6 to 12 months, $50,000 to $275,000, and Phase II as technology development, 24 months, $750,000 to $1.8 million. (SBIR.gov)
• ›SBIR and STTR authority expired on September 30, 2025 and was reauthorized on April 13, 2026, through September 30, 2031. (SBA, Crowell)
• ›The Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey found that overall AI use stood at 19.8% as of May 3, 2026. Fewer than 20% of firms with four or fewer employees reported using AI, against 32% of firms with 100 to 249 employees and 37% of firms with 250 or more. (Census Bureau)

The numbers describe the program and adoption, not results from automation. They show that a funded team works to a budget and a calendar, and that the smallest firms use AI the least. A first automation that runs on its own is how a small team gets hours back without adding staff.

How long does it take to set up AI automation?

DraftClicks.com sets up the first working automations within 30 days, in three steps: a discovery call, a custom setup, and a launch with training.

1. 01Discovery call (about 45 minutes). We map where your month goes and rank opportunities by payoff. You keep the audit and next steps either way.
2. 02Custom AI setup (up to 30 days). After an onboarding call and system mapping, we fit agents and workflows to how your team already works, with revisions until it fits.
3. 03Launch and support. Your team is trained to run it, everything lives in your own accounts, and new automations follow as you grow.

Why work with a veteran-owned AI automation partner?

Because you will be working with people who run projects with written steps, a named owner for each step, and a full handover. DraftClicks.com is veteran-owned, and every project follows that same shape.

DraftClicks.com was founded by Kerry-Ann Richards, a Marine Corps F/A-18 airframes mechanic turned mission-driven operations partner. It is based in Philadelphia, PA and works remotely with organizations across the US and abroad.

Being veteran-owned means the first call starts from shared ground. What keeps the work going is the setup: your accounts, your team trained to run it, and new automations scoped as you grow.

What results have DraftClicks.com clients seen?

The example documented in full comes from a founders' nonprofit. We have not published an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech case study yet, so the first call is where we map your own milestones, deadlines, and pipeline.

For a founders' nonprofit, DraftClicks.com set up Meta ads (the ads that run on Facebook and Instagram), email, and the tracking behind them for a community food event. The event sold 74 seats and took in $570 in gifts, for a total of $3,965 against $341.70 in ad spend. Read the case study, or see all case studies.

How do you choose an AI automation partner for an SBIR, STTR, or deep tech team?

Choose a partner that shows results from organizations like yours, sets everything up in your own accounts, trains your team, and can explain how it handles technical and customer data. Be wary of any partner that will not put those commitments in writing.

Ask every partner:

• ›Will every automation and all of our data live in our own accounts?
• ›What will our team be trained to do at handover?
• ›Which clients look like us, and what changed for them in hours or dollars?
• ›How do you handle our technical and customer data, and which of our award terms does that touch?
• ›What does it cost to add automations later?

At DraftClicks.com the answers are: your accounts, a full handover, case studies you can read, and new automations scoped as you grow.

Frequently asked questions