AI for Construction
Companies
Construction teams lose experienced time to tender review, takeoff, RFIs and document control. We build around real project information and existing commercial processes, with people approving any output that affects price or programme.
0.4%
CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH / YR
239,300
EXTRA WORKERS UK NEEDS BY 2029
~10 days
AVERAGE RFI RESPONSE TIME (NAVIGANT)
Construction back offices carry too much manual work
UK construction productivity has grown about 0.4% a year over the past two decades. The wider economy and manufacturing have both pulled away. McKinsey first put a number on the gap in 2017. The number hasn't moved since.
It isn't the trades. Site is as productive as it's ever been. The drag is the office around it. Estimating, RFIs, submittals, programme updates, drawings, all still done by a person reading a PDF and typing into a template.
AI lands in the back office first. The trades carry on doing what trades do.
TODAY'S BACK OFFICE
- Estimators counting on PDFs at 9pm
- RFIs sitting unread for a week
- Drawing revisions tracked by filename
- Site diaries on WhatsApp
- Knowhow walks out at retirement
WITH THE LOOPS IN PLACE
- Takeoff drafted before the estimator opens it
- RFI draft replies on the desk by morning
- Drawing changes flagged automatically
- Site reports written from a voice note
- Past job knowledge stays searchable
Where AI saves time on a construction job
Our BuildManager pilot uses a real tender and quantity-surveyor workbook to test takeoff output against commercial evidence. The same principle applies to each workflow below: use real project information and keep the responsible professional in control.
Estimating & takeoff
AI reads the drawings, drafts the quantities and pulls historic rates from your past jobs. The estimator checks and prices instead of counting symbols on a PDF.
RFI & submittal flow
Inbound queries get classified, cross-referenced against the spec and the drawing pack, and a draft reply lands ready to send. The PM signs it off, doesn't write it.
Drawing & document control
New revision lands. The system diffs it against the last one, calls out what's changed, and tells you which RFIs, packages and subcontractors are affected before anyone misses it.
Programme & risk
Daily reports, weather, deliveries and RFI delays feed a model that flags the activities about to slip. You see it on Monday morning, not when it hits the critical path.
Site reporting & knowhow
Site manager speaks into the phone. The system writes the diary, files the photos, flags the safety items, and adds it to a job memory the whole company can search next time.
The cost of manual construction admin
Three numbers from the public record. Read them together.
CITB CONSTRUCTION WORKFORCE OUTLOOK 2025-29
35% of the workforce is over 50.
UK construction needs 239,300 extra workers by 2029 just to keep up with demand. Apprenticeship completion has dropped to around 41% on 2024/25 starts. The senior estimator who reads drawings in their head is closer to retirement than you'd like.
McKINSEY GLOBAL INSTITUTE, 2017
Construction spends under 1% of revenue on IT.
Aerospace and automotive spend more than three times that. McKinsey put the productivity gap between construction and the rest of the economy at one of the largest in the developed world. Nine years on, the gap is still there.
NAVIGANT CONSTRUCTION RFI STUDY
A typical commercial job carries 500 to 800 RFIs.
Average response time is around ten days. Across dependent trades, those inbox waits consume weeks of float. A faster response gives that time back to the programme.
Sources: CITB Construction Workforce Outlook 2025-29, ONS productivity in the construction industry, McKinsey Global Institute (Reinventing Construction, 2017), Navigant Construction Forum RFI studies.
How we start
We're an AI build shop. We sit between estimators, PMs and the site team, and turn the messiest bits of the office into software they'll use. Not a chatbot bolted onto Asite.
Each phase is tied to a defined tender, document set or commercial workflow. Your estimator or quantity surveyor reviews the result, and your team owns the agreed code, records and handover material.
BOOK A WORKFLOW AUDITWorkflow audit
Half a day with your estimators, PMs and document controllers. We map where the time goes and pick the two or three loops worth building first. Scope and price on the page, not in a slide deck.
Capture the job memory
Past tenders, RFIs, drawings, specs, site reports, the comments in the corners of old spreadsheets. We pull them into one place an AI can read so every tool you build inherits twenty years of company knowhow.
Launch the first loop
Usable internal tool live. Plugged into the systems you already run: Procore, Asite, Viewpoint, Autodesk Construction Cloud, Outlook, SharePoint. Your team uses it on a live job, not in a demo environment.
Add a learning loop on top
When a takeoff or RFI draft is corrected, the case is retained for review. Approved instruction or rule changes are tested against the earlier examples before the next version is released.
Works with your existing systems
Generic AI tools were written for an American GC and a different document pack. We build for JCT contracts, NEC4, NRM2, ISO 19650, BIM Level 2, the CSCS card you have to check before someone walks on site. The rules of the job stay the rules.
UK contract forms
JCT, NEC3 and NEC4 clauses recognised on sight. Early warnings, compensation events and notices drafted in the right voice. Not a generic American "change order".
UK measurement & standards
NRM1 and NRM2 for measurement. CESMM4 on civils. CDM 2015 for safety. BS 1192 and ISO 19650 for document naming. The AI reads it the way your QS does.
UK data, UK rules
Hosted in the UK or EU. UK GDPR, ICO-compliant. No drawings or commercials leaking into a US training set. Building Safety Act golden-thread evidence kept where the regulator expects it.
Our current BuildManager work uses real tender evidence
The pilot compares AI takeoff against a 500-line quantity-surveyor workbook, including the places where the extraction is right and where commercial judgement or missing trade logic still matters.
When this is worth discussing
We work best when there is a real operating problem, enough volume to measure and people from the affected teams who can make decisions.
Usually a good fit
- An established UK business, usually with annual revenue above £10m
- A repeated process with a known cost, delay, error rate or capacity problem
- A senior sponsor and a day-to-day owner who understand the work
- Access to the relevant staff, systems, sample records and security requirements
We may point you elsewhere
- A standard product already covers the process well
- The requirement is a one-off small build with no wider operating case
- There is no owner or access to the people and data needed to test the result
- The plan relies on AI making high-impact decisions with nobody responsible for review
Questions the buying team will ask
We've already got Procore / Asite / Viewpoint. Why do we need this?
Those are filing cabinets. Very expensive ones. They store the drawings, the RFIs and the cost data. They don't read them, write back, or notice patterns. We sit on top of what you've got and do the work the people inside it do today.
Will it get the takeoff wrong and bid us into a loss?
It's a draft for a human estimator, not an automatic bid. The AI counts, classifies and applies your rates. The estimator checks, adjusts and presses send. The same way you'd treat a junior's first pass, except the junior is awake at 3am and never gets bored.
Our drawings and tender prices are sensitive. Where does that data go?
Hosting, model providers, access and retention are agreed with your IT and privacy owners. Where a provider is used, its training terms, region and subprocessors are checked against the contract. The required access and activity records are included in the design.
How fast can you get a first version live?
We test on real project information but keep the current process in control until the project and commercial teams are satisfied with the evidence, source references and approval route.
Our PMs aren't going to type into a new tool. They live in email and WhatsApp.
Adoption is better when the workflow uses channels already accepted by the business. An RFI draft can enter an Outlook review queue, and a controlled voice-note intake can feed a site-report draft where company policy allows it. Any new interface should be reserved for the staff who need the additional controls.
What about the Building Safety Act and the golden thread?
For work affecting project records, the design can retain what the system read, produced and who approved it. Your building-safety and legal advisers determine how those records fit the golden thread and any higher-risk building duties.
How much does it cost?
The workflow audit is fixed-fee. A first build is scoped against a defined tender or process, with integrations, review time, running costs and support priced separately. The investment case uses your own estimating hours and error costs.
Do we own it at the end?
Yes. Source code, data, prompts and model configuration. We can host it for you or hand everything to your IT team. There is no per-seat licence or platform lock-in.
Talk to us about your construction admin
Show us a recent tender or project workflow, the source documents and the commercial checks around it. We will identify a use case that can be measured against the next live job.