AI by industry

AI for construction

In construction, the task that costs is the quote that waits. The estimator is on site, the request sits in the inbox for three days, and the client has signed elsewhere. Behind it, the month’s valuation is done on the last day, from memory, and the site report is never written — until the dispute, where it would have changed everything.

5 tasks documented below1 limit no safety, compliance or pricing decisionThe site manager stays he validates, the agent prepares2 to 6 weeks before the first system is open
Pre-price the quote
Prepare the month’s valuation
Write up the site report

The tasks we remove first in this industry

The cost

What this industry pays when nothing moves.

Ranges, not promises. They come from tasks we meet in this industry and orders of magnitude we measure in the survey — yours may fall outside, in either direction.

Changing nothing
Time to answer a quote request3 to 8 days
Requests unanswered for lack of time1 in 4 to 1 in 3
Preparing a valuationhalf a day to a day
Site reports writtenrarely, or after the fact
Compiling an O&M manual1 to 3 weeks, at the end of the job
Jobs lost to slowness, per quarter3 to 8
The quoting system, opened
Time to answer a quote request1 to 2 days
Requests unanswered for lack of timefewer than 1 in 15
Preparing a valuation1 to 2 hours of review
Site reports writtensame day, from the notes
Compiling an O&M manualas the job goes, assembled in a day
Jobs lost to slowness, per quarter1 to 2
Five tasks

What we remove, and what we leave.

Each task is described with what the agent takes on and what stays with a person. If the second column is empty, we have not understood the industry.

01

Pre-price a quote

What the agent does
It reads the request and the drawings, finds comparable quotes, and pre-fills the take-off and the template with your rates, citing the quotes it draws on.

What stays with a person
The final price, the quantities checked on site, the margin. A wrong quote sent fast costs more than a right quote sent slowly.

02

Answer a tender

What the agent does
It extracts the requirements from the specification, finds your past answers, pre-fills the method statement and flags what has never been dealt with.

What stays with a person
The commitment on every requirement, and the signature. Compliance promised by mistake is paid for over the whole contract.

03

Prepare the monthly valuations

What the agent does
From daily reports, delivery notes and quotes, it prepares the month’s valuation, item by item, with progress and deviations.

What stays with a person
The actual progress, validated by the site manager. It prepares ; it observes nothing on site.

04

Write up site reports

What the agent does
From the site manager’s notes, photos and messages, it produces the report in your format, with points to action and who is responsible.

What stays with a person
What was observed, and any mention of safety. The report is the site manager’s.

05

Compile the O&M manual as the job goes

What the agent does
Data sheets, certificates, drawings, manuals : it files them as they arrive and flags what is missing before handover.

What stays with a person
The validation of every document and the handover. An incomplete manual delays the release of retentions.

What we do not do

No safety, compliance or pricing decision is taken by an agent.

On a site, those three decisions commit the company’s liability and sometimes lives. The agent prepares, finds, assembles and cites. It does not set a price, does not validate progress, never rules on a safety matter. The diagram below shows where its perimeter stops.

A quote request comes in — a diagram, not a screenshot
1Request received, drawings readtrigger
2Comparable quotes foundreading
?Is there a comparable quote in the archive?condition
if yes
4Take-off and template pre-filled, source quotes citeddraft
5The estimator validates quantities and price, sendshuman
otherwise
6File opened, site visit to schedule, queued for the estimatorescalation

In both branches, the estimator sends. The agent shortens what comes before the decision, not the decision.

The method, in one sentence

Ten systems, one survey, one system opened at a time — the one with the shortest payback. Read the full method, or go back to the AI agency page.

The tools

What we open it with, and why here.

The choice of tool comes last, and it is reversible. But in this industry, three constraints keep coming back and steer the choice before we even start.

Your quotes and your rates, as they are
Estimating software, accounts package or a spreadsheet : the agent reads what your tools export and writes into what they accept. It replaces nothing.
A circuit visible in n8n or Make
Rates change, items too. A rule is corrected in minutes by your team, without calling us.
A model that cites its sources
Every pre-filled line shows the quote it comes from. The estimator checks in one click instead of taking it on trust.
The objections

What we hear in this industry, before we start.

Our quotes are in estimating software. Can an agent write into it ?

It starts from what the software exports and prepares what it knows how to import. If it has no interface, we work from its exports. The final quote stays in your tool, validated by your estimator.

Our site managers do not write. They take photos and send messages.

That is exactly what the agent starts from : photos, transcribed voice messages, brief notes. It produces the report in your format ; the site manager reviews it in five minutes. On the day of the dispute, that report exists.

How long before it is useful ?

The survey of the ten systems is delivered within 72 hours. Opening the first system takes two to six weeks — depending on the state of your quote archive, which makes all the difference.

We are a twenty-person firm. Is this for us ?

That is the size where the owner still does the quotes in the evening. A single task — pre-pricing — is enough to give them their evenings back, without touching the rest.

Where this industry concentrates

The areas where we are called most for this.

Related industries

The same tasks, in neighbouring industries : AI for manufacturing, AI for real estate, AI for transport.

Method notes

What we have written on this subject.

First call — fifteen minutes

We will tell you which system to open first.

Describe the task that costs you the most. We will tell you what is feasible, how long it takes and what it costs. If the answer is no, you will leave with the two reasons why.