Cost exposure appears after commitment
Symptom
Actual cost reports can lag commitments, changes and progress, so a package can drift before the team has a clear action to take.
Construction Lab
AI for construction cost, quality and schedule control
Your cost ledger, programme and site records already contain signals of where work is drifting. We help project and commercial teams test two or three uses on one live project, then integrate only what proves useful.
4 minutes · results on screen · no email needed
The challenges we see
Four patterns come up in almost every one of the contractors and developers we work with. If one sounds familiar, that is usually where to start.
Defects found after work is covered
Symptom
Photos and inspection notes are captured, but recurring issues are hard to compare against drawings and specifications until rework or snagging.
Trade interfaces create schedule drift
Symptom
Progress updates show what moved, but not always which predecessor or handoff will push the next trade.
Current answers are hard to find
Symptom
The latest drawing, RFI response or approval may be in a different folder or thread from the question on site.
Practical AI uses
Four uses we would consider first. Each one runs on data most teams already have.
Use case 01
Package overrun early warning
- What it does
- Compares budget, commitments, approved and pending changes, progress and actuals to flag packages needing review before the next cost report.
- Data it needs
- Cost plan or budget, commitments, change orders, progress claims and actual cost exports.
- Time to first value
- 8–12 weeks
Use case 02
Inspection photo triage
- What it does
- Groups site photos by location or trade and flags images that may show a defect or missing check for an inspector to confirm.
- Data it needs
- Site photos with location and date, inspection checklists, specifications and past snag records.
- Time to first value
- 8–12 weeks
Use case 03
Schedule risk and resequencing support
- What it does
- Compares planned activities with progress updates and highlights likely handoff risks for a planner to review before resequencing.
- Data it needs
- Baseline programme, look-ahead plans, progress updates, constraints and approved changes.
- Time to first value
- 10–14 weeks
Use case 04
Source-linked site document assistant
- What it does
- Answers questions about drawings, RFIs, approvals and meeting minutes with a link to the source and the document version.
- Data it needs
- Controlled drawings, RFIs, approvals, meeting minutes and revision metadata, as PDF, Word or export files.
- Time to first value
- 4–6 weeks
How we implement
Four steps, with a decision point after each. You can stop after any of them and keep what was built.
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Diagnose
Review one project's cost, programme, quality and document workflows with the people who use them.
You get: a ranked list of use cases, expected value, data gaps and a pilot baseline
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Pilot
Test one use case on one live project or trade package against a baseline agreed before work starts.
You get: a working pilot, review log and go / no-go recommendation
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Integrate
Connect the approved use case to the cost system, programme or document store, with permissions and an audit trail.
You get: a production workflow your team can run and monitor
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Scale
Repeat the proven workflow on selected projects, with templates, ownership and support for the rollout.
You get: a rollout playbook your team owns
Expected outcomes
These are estimates, not client results. We confirm or revise each one against your own baseline during the diagnosis.
- Estimate range for a first pilot. Depends on weekly cost and progress updates, usable commitment data and an agreed comparison baseline.
- Estimate range for inspected work. Depends on defects being visible in photos, a usable baseline and inspectors acting on confirmed flags.
- Estimate range for a first workflow. Depends on current search time, source quality, revision metadata and regular team use.
- Estimate range for a first project. Depends on pilot and integration cost, adoption and the validated monthly saving from the selected workflow.
Questions project and commercial managers ask
Something else on your mind? Ask us directly.
Do we need to change our project software?
Usually not. We can start with exports or read-only access to the cost system, programme and document store you already use, then integrate only a proven workflow.
Will site teams have to learn a new app?
Not necessarily. The first pilot can use existing document or chat workflows; if a new interface is useful, we introduce it after the use case is proven.
Who owns the models and the data?
You do. Models, code and data stay in your environment or your cloud account. We don't reuse your data to train anything for other clients.
How much of our team's time does a pilot take?
Plan on about four hours a week from a project or commercial manager, plus short review sessions with site staff.
What if the pilot misses its target?
We agree the target and baseline before we start. If the pilot falls short, you get a written explanation of why, and you are not committed to the next phase.
Reviewed by Faruk Karagöl, CTO ·
Find out which use case fits your project
18 questions, about 4 minutes. You see your score and top three gaps before we ask for anything.
