AI in preconstruction is already moving from experimentation to practical use as companies have started to invest in AI. The 2026 AGC Construction Hiring and Business Outlook found that 61% of contractors either use AI or plan to increase their AI investments, up from...
A drawing lands in an RFQ inbox. Someone runs it through an OCR tool, or pastes it into a generic AI tool and asks for the dimensions. The answer looks reasonable. It’s often wrong in ways nobody catches until the quote is already out. Neither tool is broken....
Quote turnaround time gets blamed on pricing. In most shops, that’s not where the delay actually comes from. The RFQ usually waits on the experienced estimators who can read the print correctly. Tolerances need checking. A casting might only have a 2D drawing to...
A shop wins an RFQ for a part that starts as a permanent mold casting. It gets machined next, then moves to assembly. The quoting software prices the machining step well. It has no framework for the casting cost or the assembly labor. Another shop gets a different...
A PDF drawing and a CAD file arrive in the same package. Both represent the same part. One was updated last week. The other wasn’t. Nobody knows which one is current until the machined part fails inspection. That gap, between what the 3D model shows and what the...
A CAD-PLM Manager at a global ceramics manufacturing company recently described their quoting challenge in precise terms. They needed automated cost estimation from CAD models, drawings, and BOMs — across machining, fabrication, and assemblies. They were already...
