An AI estimating agent for contractors
An estimating agent turns an incoming request into a first draft of the estimate from your past jobs and price lists, and logs every open bid in one place. A person checks and sends every number. One job, one agent: no request sits unanswered, and no bid goes quiet without a follow-up.
What it does
- Intake. Reads each new request from email or your form, pulls out the scope and due date, and opens it in the bid log.
- Draft. Builds a first estimate from your price list and the closest past jobs, with every line traced to where the number came from.
- Bid log. Keeps every open bid in one list: status, value, due date, owner, next action.
- Follow-up reminders. Tells the owner which bids need a call today and drafts the follow-up message.
It connects to your estimating software, CRM and inbox through MCP-Connectors, API, OAuth.
The human gate
No price leaves without an estimator's OK.
The agent drafts. The estimator checks quantities, scope and margin, changes what's off and approves the send. Discounts, exclusions and anything outside the price list are the estimator's call. That's the rule for every agent we set up: one goal per agent, written decision limits, a human approves what goes out.
Every agent runs until it hits a gate a person still owns. In estimating, the gate is the price.
What must be ready first
| Ready first | Why the agent needs it |
|---|---|
| A current price list | The draft is only as good as the prices behind it. |
| Past jobs in one system | The agent compares new requests to past work. Jobs spread across inboxes and spreadsheets give it nothing to compare. |
| One owner of the pipeline | Someone approves estimates, makes the calls and decides what to chase. |
| A written bid process | Who qualifies a request, who estimates, who follows up, by when. See an SOP an AI agent can follow. |
First you need to clean the data, and this is the best investment you can do.
Pipeline result
In three months the sales pipeline grew from $1M to $14.5M.
The agent was one part. The system did the work: AI for bid management, AI estimation, AI-powered prequalification, pipeline discipline and reporting structure. Every qualified opportunity has one owner, every deal has a dated next action until it's won, lost or parked, and sales reports on a weekly scorecard. The full story is in the pipeline case.
Where Efficiency Sprint fits
Efficiency Sprint makes companies operationally ready for AI. We write the bid process, name the owner, get past jobs and prices into one place, then set up the agent inside EfficiOS with the estimator's gate in place.
Questions
Can AI write a construction estimate on its own?
It can write the first draft. A person checks and sends every number. Scope, margin and exclusions stay with the estimator.
Will it replace my estimator?
No. It takes the copying, the lookups and the reminders off the estimator's desk, so the estimator spends the day on the numbers that need judgment.
What does it need from us?
A current price list, past jobs in one system, one owner of the pipeline and a written bid process.
Does it work with our estimating software?
It connects through MCP-Connectors, API, OAuth. If your tool has none of these, the agent works from exports until it does.
How does it help win more bids?
Every request gets a fast first draft, and no open bid goes without a dated next step. Speed and follow-up are where bids get lost.