AI ESTIMATING · REVIEW-FIRSTCATEGORY · AI ESTIMATING

AI estimates you can verify before bidding.

Most AI estimators ask you to trust the output. BuildBid ships the draft with its work shown.

An AI estimator that cannot tell you where a quantity came from is a liability on bid day. BuildBid outputs every line item with a source-sheet link, a confidence score, and the assumptions the extractor relied on. You verify before you send — not after.

The draft is designed to be wrong in reviewable ways. Low-confidence rows are flagged, not buried. Spec-vs-plan contradictions are surfaced as open questions. You fix the draft in minutes instead of rebuilding it from scratch.

Corrections feed the next run. When you nudge a quantity or reassign a scope, that signal goes into the model's next pass on a similar package. The review step is the product, not a paperwork tax.

Try on a sample packageSee sample estimate
WORKFLOW · HOW IT ACTUALLY RUNS5 STEPS
  1. STEP 01

    Drop the package

    Plans, specs, addenda, RFIs, photos. PDF and image formats ingested natively. No manual tagging step before the draft runs.

  2. STEP 02

    Draft with source rows

    Every line item is generated with a back-reference to the sheet and region it came from. Click a row, see the extracted geometry or text that produced it.

  3. STEP 03

    Confidence triage

    The review view sorts by confidence. You sweep red and amber rows first, approve green. A typical mid-size package reviews in under an hour for a prepared estimator.

  4. STEP 04

    Correct + approve

    Nudge quantities, reassign scope, override unit costs. Every correction is logged with who/when/why so the audit trail survives handoff.

  5. STEP 05

    Export or hand off

    Proposal view, CSV, XLSX, or pass to your proposal tooling. Corrections feed the next similar package so the draft starts closer to final each cycle.

PAIN · WHAT THIS REPLACES

Where the hours actually go today

  • Legacy AI estimators that output a total with no way to see how it was derived.
  • Manual takeoff software where the AI step is bolted on after the fact and does not feed the review.
  • Spending more time re-verifying AI output than you would have spent doing the takeoff yourself.
  • No audit trail when the estimate changes hands — review comments, overrides, and assumptions get lost between tools.
LIMITS · WHAT BUILDBID IS NOT YET

Honest gaps — read before you buy

  • Confidence scores are calibrated, not perfect. A green row is still a claim that needs a quick estimator sanity-check on high-stakes bids.
  • Highly custom or schematic-stage drawings produce lower-confidence drafts. BuildBid flags this rather than fabricating precision.
  • We do not yet model crew productivity curves off your historical job data. Self-perform labor rates come from your inputs or a neutral default.
  • Not a substitute for a trade-review pass on complex scopes — MEP coordination, heavy phasing, and schedule-linked general conditions still benefit from a human second read.
REVIEW FOCUS · WHAT TO CHECK3 AREAS
CHECK 01

Draft estimate with confidence column — red/amber/green sort, source-sheet link on every row.

CHECK 02

Source-row drawer — click a line item, see the exact sheet region and extracted text that produced it.

CHECK 03

Audit trail — every override, comment, and assumption logged with estimator ID and timestamp.

NEXT · TRY ON A SAMPLE

Sample plans, zero setup. The draft comes back with quantities, confidence flags, and the source rows we used. You review before you send.

Try on a sample package