A lodged tender is a binding offer, and an estimating agent that sees a rival's pricing is a cartel problem. The agent measures and reconciles; your estimator prices, certifies and lodges.
Extract quantities from the nominated drawing set into a draft takeoff, tied to the revision measured.
02
Diff two drawing revisions and list only the changes that move a quantity.
Reason
03
Reconcile received subcontractor quotes against the scope schedule and list what nobody has covered.
04
Extract each rate with its source and effective date, and the determination the project runs under.
05
Diff the working estimate against the estimator's last approved total, itemised, before anything leaves the office.
Decide
06
Reconcile the assembled pack against the ITT compliance checklist and report what is missing.
07
Route the estimate, its qualifications register and open assumptions to the estimator.
Out
08
Retain the takeoff, the quotes, the assumptions and the version each of them was approved at.
09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
→Product statement
The agent measures and reconciles; the estimator who signs prices, certifies and lodges — after lodgement the route is a formal mistake claim, with the bid guarantee and the next responsibility determination riding on it.
Example workflow
One package, drawings to sign-off
AgentHuman
1Drawing set receivedITT documents, drawings, specification and the scope schedule
2Quantities extractedMeasured quantities, the revision they came from, received quotes and every rate source with its date
3Estimate assembledDraft rates, open assumptions, the qualifications register and confidence
4Controls appliedTenant-partition checks, rate-source and wage-determination checks, assumption tripwires and confidence threshold
No human action required
Stages 1 to 4 run unaided, and nothing is priced or lodged at any of them — the agent is measuring, and the estimator's lane opens at the confidence gate.
5DecisionBranches at the confidence threshold
High confidence
Goes to the estimator to price.
Low confidence
Adds a commercial read first.
Estimator sign-off
The estimate is held with its takeoff, its open assumptions and the confidence.
Price · Amend · Send to commercial review
Priced — released to the signatory▼
6Estimating systems updatedOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
7Outcome evaluatedAmendments made, assumption outcomes, quote coverage and post-lodgement corrections
Amendments
Every estimator amendment is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items
Setting or approving the final tender price.
Signing, submitting or lodging the tender.
Signing an independent-pricing or anti-collusion certificate.
Adding, removing or rewording a qualification, exclusion or provisional sum.
Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided
✓Extract quantities from the nominated drawing set into a draft takeoff.
✓Reconcile quotes against the scope schedule.
✓Diff two revisions and list what moves a quantity.
✓Assemble the pack against the ITT checklist and report what is missing.
Any write happens inside the boundaries agreed at implementation, and never onto a lodged bid.
Approving a bid bond or its penal sum.
Withdrawing or correcting a lodged bid.
Making or varying a design or engineering assumption.
Communicating with a competing bidder.
Example output
One estimate line, annotated
Everything the agent measures is attached to the drawing it was taken from.
Estimating output · single line itemIllustrative example
Package
Measured item
Quantity
Rate source
Confidence
Label carried
Structural steel
Edge beams to level three, measured off the revision the ITT nominates
18.4 tonnes
Subcontract quote received
93%
Estimate — not a quote or offer
As receivedTaken from the nominated drawing set and the quotes on file — nothing here is written by the agent.
What was readNominated drawing revisionScope scheduleSubcontractor quote
Why this rate sourceA received quote covers this scope, so nothing here is inferred.
ActionPriceAmendSend to commercial review
What the score decidesBelow the threshold the estimate picks up a commercial read before the estimator.
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 packageFrom your own tender files
03Measurement
Measure inside one bidder's tenant
Drawings, quotes and rate libraries are partitioned to the bidding entity, and each context assembly is logged against that partition.
01Approved path
Price the package, not the risk
Routine takeoff and quote reconciliation are done before the estimator opens the file.
02Human review
Send review where the exposure sits
Assumption-dependent items and low-confidence rates are marked, so the estimator's read starts where risk concentrates.
04Build an evidence trail
The takeoff, the quotes behind it and the sign-off stay attached to the tender.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
Post-lodgement price-integrity failures are counted against an all-tender baseline, because a lodged price is an offer and the correction route is a formal mistake claim rather than an edit.
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Shared-tenant estimating
4.5%
3.5×
Review
Publicly funded bonded tenders
2.7%
2.1×
Review
Design-and-construct tenders
1.8%
1.4×
Watch
Documented BOQ negotiated work
0.9%
0.7×
Normal
Bar: price-integrity-failure lift vs. an all-tender baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
Closing means the suite got longer
Nothing closes on an explanation. The cycle ends when the failure exists as a regression case the next release has to pass.
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Price-integrity failures rise in a tender slice.
02Diagnose
The estimator reads the takeoff, the quotes and the version history until the cause is one of them.
03Improve
The fix is written against a version, with the estimates that motivated it attached.
04Verify
Release is blocked until the affected regression cases pass again.
05Learn
The case joins the permanent suite and the estimating standards.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. Every following cycle starts against a longer suite than this 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, estimating workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Tender workflow discovery and boundary definition.
02Drawing and quote source assessment.
03Rate-source, wage-determination and partition mapping.
04Drawing ingestion and quantity normalisation.
05Takeoff logic and quote reconciliation.
06Confidence scoring and assumption routing.
07Estimator sign-off workflow.
08Estimating and bid-system integration.
09Evaluation suite and regression cases.
10Guardrails and approval controls.
11Observability and trace 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 package, one bidding entityProductionProduction estimating systemsAdvancedMultiple entities / regions
Introduced at Pilot
Takeoff and quote reconciliation✓✓✓
Estimator sign-off✓✓✓
Baseline evaluation✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Package reporting by trade—✓✓
Review workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back—✓✓
Bid-history analytics feed—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Multi-region rate libraries——✓
Multi-stage commercial review——✓
High tender volume——✓
Enterprise tender controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, tender 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 scope schedules and rate libraries→Rate-source mapping and tenant partition setupWeek 1
02Representative priced tenders→Takeoff baseline, quote reconciliation and assumption tripwiresWeek 2
03Your qualification and exclusion standards→Qualifications-register mapping and automation-boundary definitionWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→Drawing, quote and rate-source assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Examples of tenders that had to be corrected→Evaluation suite, regression cases and failure-mode testingWeek 4
06Your review thresholds and write-back boundaries→Confidence scoring, assumption routing, guardrails and approval controlsWeek 3
07Named estimators to review the drafts→Estimator sign-off 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
Each phase covers the weeks it genuinely occupies. Week 5 carries evaluation and pilot together.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Tender workflow discovery, rate mapping and the automation boundaryW2Source integration and the takeoff baselineW3Quote reconciliation, confidence logic and sign-off controlsW4Evaluation suite, guardrails and failure-mode testingW5Estimating-system integration, pilot packages and targeted correctionsW6A live tender assembled under the estimator, then Agent Care handover
Reading the bandA bar covers only the weeks its work is named in. The week 5 overlap is real, not padding.
At the end of W6Validation closes on a real submission, and Agent Care picks up monitoring.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Construction AI agent
Build a tender agent around the estimator who signs.
Show us your drawing sets, your quote flow and who signs the tender. Partition estimating data per bidding entity first — Australian cartel maximums have doubled — then name what the agent hands the estimator and what it never touches.
