AI automation for construction companies

Paper is the delay

A site problem rarely stalls a job on its own. The delay is the chain after it: the foreman texts a photo, the project manager writes an RFI, the architect replies a week later and nobody records the cost impact. A change order is drafted from memory a month on, which is how money is left uncollected.

Construction software such as Procore or Buildertrend holds the records, but people still key most of them in at night. The best automation sits between the site and those systems.

Paperwork streams and what automation does

Daily logs and subcontractor expiries are the usual first projects. They are frequent, easy to check and cheap to get wrong in a small way.

What we build

• A site capture flow that accepts photos, voice notes and short texts from foremen by WhatsApp or a form and files them against the right job.
• A document tracker for insurance certificates, licences and safety training records, with reminders to the sub and to your office.
• Drafting helpers for RFIs, meeting minutes and change orders that always cite the source photo or message.
• A bid inbox sorter that extracts dates, trades and scope notes into a sheet.
• Links to your project software where it has an API, and exports where it does not.

Hardware on site is a phone. We design for poor signal, so a message that fails to send is retried and the foreman is told.

Safety, records and responsibility

Automation is not a safety system. It must not replace inspections, toolbox talks or a competent person's judgment, and it does not decide whether a structure or a method is acceptable. Safety rules vary by country and are set by your local regulator, such as OSHA in the US or the HSE in Great Britain. Check with them and your insurer.

Records can matter in a dispute. We store original photos and messages unchanged next to any AI summary, with timestamps, so the summary is never the only copy. Contracts often set notice periods for changes and claims, so drafts are routed to a person who reads them against the contract.

How a project runs

1. Pick a live jobWe look at one current project and list the documents that took the most hours last month.
2. Prototype on that jobA first flow runs for two weeks on one site, with the superintendent checking every output.
3. Adjust to the crewWe change the prompts and forms based on how foremen actually send information.
4. Extend to other jobsOnce the first site is smooth we replicate the flow and add the next stream.

We are in Pune and fit calls around site hours, including early starts for US and UK crews.

Price and what moves it

Projects start at $1,500 and our rate is $30 an hour, with a fixed quote within one working day of a short call. A daily log flow for one project type is near the minimum. More paperwork streams, a project management tool to connect, offline-tolerant capture and many subcontractors increase the effort.

Running costs are model use and tool subscriptions, listed apart from the build. See AI automation cost for the general drivers and AI document processing for the reading step. The parent AI automation page explains how we hand work over.