Substituting a product is a design act, not a purchasing one. The agent matches deliveries, screens registers and assembles conformity evidence; the consultant evaluates and the owner consents.
Assembles the evidence; it never approves the swap
In
01
Match each requisition line to the specified product, its declared use and the approved list.
02
Match every product to its conformity artefact — declaration of performance, listing or test report.
Reason
03
Screen nominated products against the product-use bans in force in that state, and date the check.
04
Screen suppliers against sanctions, licence and modern-slavery registers, and report the exceptions.
05
Monitor supplier lead times and raise an exception well before a date threatens the programme.
Decide
06
Monitor delivery dates against the programme, and hand the window itself to the person holding the duty.
07
Match received deliveries against PO lines and flag quantity and documentation discrepancies.
Out
08
Retain the evidence pack, the batch records and the buyer's decision against the line item.
09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
→Product statement
The agent assembles evidence; the design consultant evaluates a substitution and the owner consents — and once the product is installed, the remedy is a rectification order, not a return.
Example workflow
One line item, requisition to release
AgentHuman
1Requisition receivedSpecification, submittal register, approved product list or site request
2Evidence assembledThe specified product, its declared characteristics, the artefacts on file and the date each was issued
3Exceptions listedMissing artefacts, lead-time risk, register hits and confidence
4Controls appliedApproved-list and delegation checks, ban-register screening, substitution tripwires and confidence threshold
No human action required
Stages 1 to 4 run unaided, and nothing is bought or approved at any of them — the agent is assembling evidence, and the buyer's lane opens at the confidence gate.
5DecisionBranches at the confidence threshold
High confidence
Goes to the buyer holding the delegation.
Low confidence
Adds a design-consultant read first.
Buyer approval
The line is held with its evidence pack, its exceptions and the confidence.
Release · Amend · Send to the consultant
Approved — released to purchasing▼
6Procurement systems updatedOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
7Outcome evaluatedEvidence completeness, register hits, substitution referrals and non-conformities found later
Amendments
Every amendment made in review is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items
Approving a product substitution or an “or equal”.
Determining that a product conforms or is fit for its use.
Releasing a PO outside delegated authority or the approved list.
Setting or compressing a delivery window or driver schedule.
Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided
✓Match received deliveries against PO lines and flag discrepancies.
✓Monitor lead times and raise an exception.
✓Assemble the conformity evidence pack.
✓Screen suppliers and products against sanctions, licence and ban registers.
Any write happens inside the boundaries agreed at implementation, and never onto a submittal or a schedule.
Approving or closing out a submittal.
Certifying domestic content or applying for a waiver.
Onboarding a supplier or waiving a screening failure.
Drafting any part of a modern slavery statement.
Example output
One line item, annotated
Everything the agent assembles is attached to the line item it was gathered for.
Procurement output · single line itemIllustrative example
Package
Specified product
Lead time
Conformity artefact
Confidence
Register check
Façade cladding
Insulated panel to the specified core and fire classification
14 weeks
Declaration of performance on file
91%
Ban registers clear at the check date
As receivedTaken from the specification and the artefacts on file — nothing on this side is written by the agent.
What was readSpecification clauseDeclaration of performanceBatch and consignment record
Why this is an exceptionOnly a consultant may answer a lead-time problem with a different product.
ActionReleaseAmendSend to the consultant
What the score decidesBelow the threshold the line picks up a consultant read before the buyer.
Value
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value landsValue 01 – 04
Every line itemFrom the specification and the PO
03Evidence
Check against this project's own list
Approved products, delegation limits and use bans come from the project and the jurisdiction it sits in, not a global default.
01Approved path
Buy what was specified
Routine matching, screening and evidence assembly happen before the buyer opens the line.
02Human review
Send review to the substitution pressure
Lead-time exceptions and missing artefacts are marked, so the buyer's read starts where substitution starts.
04Build an evidence trail
The evidence pack travels with the line item, not in a side folder.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
Construction ERP and procurementTrimble Viewpoint Vista RIB Jobpac Connect
Project management and POsProcore Autodesk Construction Cloud
Submittals and document controlOracle Aconex · Newforma Submittal Exchange
Agent
Procurement & supply chain
Reads the specification Assembles the evidence Holds for the buyer
Sourcing and screeningCoupa · SAP Ariba Certification and ban registers
Post-installation non-conformity is split by package, and the exposed cohorts announce themselves — façade and passive fire first, because rectification there dwarfs the product.
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Façade and passive fire
6.5%
3.6×
Review
US federally assisted work
4.5%
2.5×
Review
Long-lead structural and MEP
2.7%
1.5×
Watch
Commodity repeat-buy items
0.9%
0.5×
Normal
Bar: non-conformity-rate lift vs. an all-line-item baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
Closing a cycle means adding a case
Nothing is closed by an account of what went wrong. The cycle ends when the failure is a regression case.
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Non-conformity rate rises in a product class.
02Diagnose
The buyer and the design consultant read the evidence pack and the order history until the cause is one of them.
03Improve
Buyer and consultant agree the change, and it ships against a version.
04Verify
A failing case stops the release, not a reviewer's judgement.
05Learn
The case sticks, and the approved-product list moves with it.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. The suite the next detection runs against is longer by one.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, procurement workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Procurement workflow discovery and boundary work.
02ERP, PO and submittal source assessment.
03Approved-list, delegation and register mapping.
04Requisition ingestion and normalisation.
05Evidence-pack logic and exception rules.
06Confidence scoring and substitution routing.
07Buyer approval workflow.
08ERP and procurement-system integration.
09Conformity regression cases.
10Guardrails and delegation controls.
11Evidence-pack instrumentation.
12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne project, one approved listProductionProduction procurement systemsAdvancedMultiple projects / regions
Introduced at Pilot
Evidence packs against your spec✓✓✓
Buyer approval✓✓✓
Conformity baseline✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Reporting by product class—✓✓
Review workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back—✓✓
ERP and finance integration—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Multi-jurisdiction product rules——✓
Multi-stage buyer approvals——✓
High order volume——✓
Enterprise supplier controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, order volume, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from buildBuild pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bringWe build with it
01Your approved product and supplier lists→Approved-list and delegation mappingWeek 1
02Representative specifications and POs→Evidence-pack baseline, matching and screening rulesWeek 2
03Your delegation limits and substitution protocol→Substitution-protocol mapping and automation-boundary definitionWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→ERP, PO and submittal system assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Substitutions that should not have been approved→Conformity cases and failure-mode testingWeek 4
06Your delegation limits and approved-product list→Confidence scoring, exception routing, guardrails and approval controlsWeek 3
07Named buyers and the consultants they refer to→Buyer approval workflow, then pilot and production validationWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
Every phase sits across the weeks it truly occupies. Week 5 carries evaluation and pilot at once.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Procurement workflow discovery, list mapping and the automation boundaryW2Source integration and the evidence-pack baselineW3Exception rules, confidence logic and approval controlsW4Evaluation suite, guardrails and failure-mode testingW5ERP integration, pilot packages and targeted correctionsW6A live package procured under the buyer's authority, then handover
Reading the bandEach bar covers only the weeks its work is named in. The week 5 overlap is real, not padding.
At the end of W6Validation complete; Agent Care holds the monitoring from week seven.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Construction AI agent
Build a procurement agent around your substitution protocol.
Show us your specifications, your approved lists and who consents to a substitution. Once a non-conforming product is installed the remedy is rectification, and on US federally assisted work the domestic-content position cannot be cured at all.
