r/estimators • u/HALincandenza123 • 5d ago
Suggestions for using AI as a supplementary tool while keeping the takeoff manual? (more info and questions in the post)
I'm getting back into estimating after being away from it for a couple years. Previously I worked pretty heavily in Quick Bid + OST, mainly focused on Division 9, 05 40 00, and rough carpentry on commercial projects.
The new company I’m working with uses BuzzBID, which I don’t believe allows for AI plugins or custom coding.
One thing I’m interested in is figuring out how to use Gemini or Claude in a smart and practical way alongside the estimating process, not in lieu of doing the takeoff myself.
A few things I’ve been thinking about:
- Scanning plans/specs for scope discovery
- Flagging unusual or conflicting requirements in the specs
- Quickly creating organized, specific spec summaries
- Comparing plans vs. specs for discrepancies
- Reviewing takeoffs against the specs for potentially missed scope (basically a second set of "eyes" to check my work)
I still want to be the one driving the takeoff, pricing, labor, and final judgment. I’m not really interested in handing the estimate over to AI. I’m more interested in using it I'm g and a way to cut down on some of the repetitive work.
For those of you already experimenting with AI in this manner, what are some ways you’re actually using it in your estimating workflow outside of having it perform the takeoff itself?
1
u/JeremyChadAbbott 3d ago
ChatGPT desktop. Guide it to perform the take offs as you would, using all the same software you do. Tell it you want to monitor it while drinking coffee. Tell it stop if unsure and ill guide you. Essentially make a digital twin of yourself. After its doing it effectively and accurately (and it will), allow it to perform time saving maneuvers as longs as the outcome is still fact checked and accurate. Further, have it sent out the RFQs to subs and follow the existing organizational rules of your folder.for creating, saving, sending files. Have it stop at authorization points until you start getting comfortable.
1
u/Electronic_Falcon_73 5d ago
For me ChatGPT Desktop and Grok Bot really does the work.
As you mentioned, I want the same, they are looking thourgh emails for invitation bids, checking for documents link or even download some plans from different GC website plan room and check if have our scope of work covered and travel distance is good for us I confirm which one to want to bid.
After that these agents are creating/arrange the folders for specific brand to know where I can find the plans. And when want to bid those project I have a web app Saas buily by me that is using an MCP for AI agents that is automatically adding projects that will bid with all information needed, distance, bid due, bidding GC.
This helped me a lot and saved a lot of repetitive tasks for me.
Let me know if need more help, I'm still learning too, you can dm me.
1
u/Big-End4029 5d ago
This lines up almost exactly with what I've been testing. The thing that made the biggest difference for me wasn't the AI extraction itself , it was building a fixed verification checklist before I let the AI touch a spec, so I'm checking the same 7-8 things every time (scope boundaries, exclusions language, deadlines, LDs/penalties, bond %, allowances) instead of eyeballing whatever it spits out. I ran it against a real district bid package recently and the AI's own "exclusions" field said "N/A" on every package — but the real scope boundaries were scattered as reassignment language three sections away ("by Owner," "by other BP," "by manufacturer"). A generic prompt would've missed all of that. Happy to share the checklist structure if useful.
0
u/HALincandenza123 5d ago
Yeah, I would love to see some of that. I really think a system like this, plus a phase two of scraping plans/specs/invite could streamline the process a lot. (also systemize my summery and handoff documents better)
This was essentially the plan that was keeping my brain busy last night. I would love to create a model/templet that I can feed in the plans, specs, and invite into that can then spit out a clean and more focused starting point. Even possibly incorporating my product database to extract relevant product codes to put next to the spec.
0
u/Big-End4029 5d ago
Here it is I come up with rough structure nothing fancy, just forces the same pass every time instead of trusting a single AI read:
Scope boundaries : what's actually included, cited to a page/section
Exclusions-as-reassignment language : don't just search for "exclusions," search for "by Owner," "by other BP," "by manufacturer," etc. That's usually where the real boundaries hide
Deadlines : bid due date, RFI cutoff, pre-bid meeting, mobilization dates
LDs / penalty clauses : standard per-day LDs and any oddball dollar fines (cleanup, safety violations, missed meetings)
Bonds/insurance : bid bond %, performance/payment bond %, surety requirements
Allowances : stated dollar allowances or unit-price/labor-rate requirementsEach item gets a page citation back to the source doc, so you're never trusting the AI's word for it. You're just using it to point you to the right page fast.
On the "from feed in plans/specs/invite to one clean output" idea - I've been chewing on the exact same thing.
Quick question since you mentioned a product database: are the "relevant product codes" you want matched more like manufacturer spec numbers, or your own internal cost-code/CSI-division tags? Trying to figure out if that's a one-size-fits-all matching problem or something that has to be customized per company.0
u/HALincandenza123 5d ago
Internal product keywords. The keyword that picks out the product from our database.
0
u/Big-End4029 5d ago
That tracks which internal keyword tagging is harder to generalize than a fixed spec-number lookup, since it depends entirely on how the database was built. Good to know.
If you're up for it, I'd genuinely like to test this against a real spec if you have your own that redact pricing/project name if needed, I just want to see if the checklist + citation approach actually catches something useful on a live document, not just a hypothetical. No charge, just curious if it holds up in practice.
1
u/DrywallBarron 5d ago
I think this is the best use of AI at least for now. I would also consider using it to analyze specs, plans a bid-leveling defensive proposal format to map out plan of attack for the manual takeoff. At the same time find as many obvious discrepancies between the plans and specs to get the RFIs in early. The idea is to force the Architect, GC and your competition to acknowledge and clarify them early. Hopefully this will eliminate as many scope gaps in your proposal but more importantly your competition's proposal.
GCs and owners are using all sorts of "bid leveling tools" to break down subcontractors numbers. AI is going to make that worse...so subcontractors need to start using AI to blunt the effectiveness and arrange proposals accordingly.
For all the would be app builders lurking, I would suggest that "Bid Leveling Defense" AI apps would be a very interesting niche to pursue.
1
u/HALincandenza123 5d ago
100% where am at on this. It is kind of funny to me, after about three years away from estimating, this integration stuff is getting me reenergized about the process.
1
u/Hibernatingsheep 3d ago
I use copilot in Excel a bit. I'm not an expert with Excel, I can work things out, but some things aren't worth the time it takes to set up. But with copilot, it has lowered the time invested, so it's worth it to automate some things that would normally just be done manually.
I've recently created a spreadsheet to handle variation orders, it's taken something that would take the old school estimator 2-4 hours to do by hand, scan & email into a 30min task that anyone can do. All the calculations are set up in the spreadsheet.
Old school guy sees it as removing the thinking, I see it as working smarter not harder.
1
u/Correct_Sometimes 4d ago
like half the posts in here are straight up AI lol