Estimate construction material costs from building models with AI

Reads your building model data and uses AI to estimate material prices and total project cost automatically.

How the work actually flows

A straight line. Runs once per each material group.

Pattern: Sequence (1) ยท Multiple Instances with a priori Run-Time Knowledge (14)

flowchart TD trig[\"building model data exported"\]:::trigdata s0["ai groups elements by material"]:::svc s1[["ai estimates price per group"]]:::mi s2["total costs across project"]:::task s3[("produce spreadsheet and report")]:::store trig --> s0 s0 -->|"one per each material group"| s1 s1 --> s2 s2 --> s3 out[/"multi sheet cost estimate report"/]:::out pay{{"fast defensible estimate without manual pricing"}}:::pay s3 --> out out --> pay classDef task fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#34b8f0,color:#2c2a29 classDef svc fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#7c8795,color:#2c2a29 classDef mi fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29,stroke-width:2px classDef human fill:#fff,stroke:#0079a8,color:#0079a8 classDef store fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29 classDef trig fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigtime fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigdata fill:#8ad4f5,stroke:#0079a8,color:#06314c,font-weight:bold classDef gate fill:#fff,stroke:#e8a23d,color:#6b4708,font-weight:bold classDef out fill:#1f9d6b,stroke:#167a53,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef pay fill:#06314c,stroke:#021f33,color:#fff
Starts itA stepAn outside serviceRuns once per itemA record or sheetResultPayoff
Build size
Advanced

A larger build with multiple systems, AI reasoning, and custom rules.

Business functions
AI Agents & Autonomous Systems
Connects
OpenAIAnthropicMicrosoft Excel
Featured in

The problem it solves

Pricing out a construction project from a 3D model means manually sorting through hundreds of building elements and looking up material costs one by one. It takes an estimator days to produce a report that clients and internal teams can actually use.

Who it fits

Construction estimators, architects, and engineering firms that need fast, defensible cost estimates from BIM models.

How it works

  1. Building element data is read from an exported spreadsheet or the model file
  2. AI groups the elements and identifies materials and pricing units
  3. AI estimates a price per unit and total cost for each group
  4. The system totals costs by material and category across the project
  5. A detailed spreadsheet and a summary report are produced
What you get

Cost estimates ready for your team to sanity-check

You get a detailed cost estimate broken out by material and category straight from your building model, plus a summary report.

What you get

A multi-sheet cost spreadsheet plus an executive summary report showing total project cost by material and category.

What you need

An OpenAI or Anthropic API account, and Revit or IFC export tools if starting from a raw model file.

We can build this. But should you?

The hard question is not how to build it. It is whether this is the right thing to build first.

That is what a Fractional Chief AI Officer figures out with you, before anyone writes a line of code.

Let's Talk Strategy

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