The estimating role, performed by AI.
Not a faster spreadsheet. The whole job — read the enquiry, do the take-off, price it, draw it, write the quotation — done end to end, and handed to your estimator to check.
What is an AI Estimator?
An AI Estimator is the estimating role performed end to end by artificial intelligence. It reads an incoming enquiry, does the take-off, selects sections from your system library, prices the job at your rates, produces the elevation and cutting list, and writes the quotation. A person on your team reviews it and sends it.
The distinction that matters is between a tool and a role. Estimating software gives you somewhere to put the numbers once you have worked them out. An AI Estimator works them out. You stop being the input device and start being the reviewer.
That is why the unit we sell is a hire, not a licence. You are adding capacity to the estimating desk — capacity that starts on day one, does not need three months to learn your sections, and does not leave.
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Good morning. Quote needed for 6 nos sliding windows, 2400 × 1800, 2 track, powder coated RAL 7016. Villa project Al Barsha. Elevation attached.
ELV-A-04.pdf 1.2 MB - AI Estimator
Received — 6 × 2-track sliding, 2400 × 1800. Two things before I price it: 6 mm clear toughened or DGU, and is site installation in scope?
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6 mm clear toughened. Yes, installation included.
- AI Estimator
Take-off done: 216.15 kg aluminium, 23.21 m² glass, 35 bars at 6 m. Quotation QT-2026-0847 — AED 11,777.63 incl. 5% VAT. Cutting list and glass schedule attached, ready for your review.
Estimating tool vs AI Estimator
Both put a number on a job. Only one of them does the work that produces the number.
| The question | Estimating tool | AI Estimator |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the take-off | You do. It gives you a place to type it. | The AI does it, from the drawing or the message you were sent. |
| Who picks the sections | You do, from a dropdown you maintain. | The AI does, from your system library, and shows you what it chose. |
| Who draws the elevation | Nobody — you open CAD afterwards. | The AI does, dimensioned, at the same time as the price. |
| Who writes the quotation | You do, from the tool’s numbers. | The AI does, in your format, ready to send. |
| What happens to an odd enquiry | You work around it or skip the tool. | It asks you the specific question, then continues. |
| Time from enquiry to sent quote | Faster typing. Still hours. | Five to ten minutes, including your review. |
| What you are buying | A calculator you drive. | A role you review. |
It takes the enquiry in the shape it arrives.
No portal for your customer to learn, no template for your sales team to enforce. The enquiry you actually got is the input.
Drawings
PDF elevations, DWG and DXF, contractor mark-ups, revision clouds. It reads the dimensions and the schedule, not just the file name.
Messages
A WhatsApp message with three sizes and a finish. An email with the sizes in the body and the spec in an attachment. A photo of a job sheet.
Spreadsheets
A BOQ from the main contractor, in whatever column order they used this time, with the merged cells they always leave in.
It returns the whole set, not just a price.
Everything below is the same job — 6 × 2400 × 1800 two-track sliders — and every number is computed from one take-off.
| Mark | Specification | Size | Nos | m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GL-01 | 6 mm clear toughened Polished, arrised | 1157 × 1672 | 12 | 23.21 |
| Mark | Item | Per unit | Batch |
|---|---|---|---|
| HW-01 | Nylon tandem roller, 2-wheel, 60 kg | 4 / window | 24 nos |
| HW-02 | 2-track sliding lock with key | 1 / window | 6 nos |
| HW-03 | Pull handle, natural anodised | 2 / window | 12 nos |
| HW-04 | Anti-lift block | 2 / window | 12 nos |
| HW-05 | Weather pile 5 × 7 mm | 11.38 m / window | 68.28 m |
| HW-06 | EPDM wedge gasket — both faces | 22.63 m / window | 135.79 m |
| HW-07 | Drainage cap with baffle | 2 / window | 12 nos |
It has to know what you make.
A general-purpose estimator gives you a plausible number. These four know the geometry, the cost model and the vocabulary of their own product.
Aluminium
Sliding, casement, tilt-and-turn, partitions and shopfronts. Weight-based pricing off your section library, powder-coat and anodised finishes, interlock and rebate geometry handled properly.
Read more →uPVC & fenestration
Welded corners, steel reinforcement runs, multi-chamber profiles, DGU schedules and running-metre pricing — the uPVC cost model, not the aluminium one with a different label.
Read more →Façade & curtain wall
Stick and unitised systems across a grid: panel schedules, transom and mullion take-off, bracket counts, gasket runs and glass areas by zone.
Read more →Fire-rated
Fire doors and screens quoted against the specification you are handed, with the matching hardware schedule. Quoting capability only — we make no certification claims.
Read more →Nothing reaches your customer unreviewed.
The review screen is one page: the quotation, the elevation, the cutting list, and every assumption the AI made, listed. Change a rate and everything downstream re-computes. Approve, and it sends in your format.
- Each assumption shown as an assumption, not buried in a total.
- Anything genuinely ambiguous comes back as a question, not a guess.
- The take-off is auditable line by line — you can see where every kilo came from.
- Your estimator signs it off. That signature is the product.
| Line | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminium sections — powder coated RAL 7016 | 216.15 kg | 22.50 | 4863.38 |
| 6 mm clear toughened — cut to size | 23.21 m² | 78.00 | 1810.38 |
| Hardware set — rollers, lock, handles, anti-lift | 6 set | 165.00 | 990.00 |
| Consumables — gasket, pile, silicone, fixings | 6 set | 42.00 | 252.00 |
Will it replace our estimator?
Not the role — the headcount, if that is what you are after. A complex enquiry gets exactly the same computed take-off as a simple one, because the AI is not shortcutting the geometry for the easy jobs and punting the hard ones to a specialist. That is what lets a desk run leaner: teams can often handle the same quoting volume with up to 80% fewer estimators — a desk of 20 down to around 4.
That number is capacity arithmetic, the same way the rest of this site talks about ROI: it is what the hours and the complexity add up to, not a guarantee about your specific factory. What we can be precise about is the output — the quotation and the BOQ it produces are 100% accurate to the profiles and accessories you have loaded, because the take-off is computed from your system library, not estimated by eye.
What does not change is the review. If your goal is to run without anyone checking the AI's work, this is the wrong purchase — we build on the assumption that a person signs every quotation. If your goal is the same volume, or more of it, with a smaller or unchanged desk, that is exactly what this does.
What fabricators ask before the demo.
What is an AI Estimator?
An AI Estimator is the estimating role performed end to end by artificial intelligence. It reads an incoming enquiry, does the take-off, selects sections from your system library, prices the job at your rates, produces the elevation and cutting list, and writes the quotation. A person on your team reviews it and sends it.
Will an AI Estimator replace our estimator?
Not the role — the headcount, if you want it to. Because it handles complex systems as reliably as simple ones, teams can often run with up to 80% fewer estimators for the same quoting volume. The BOQ it produces is 100% accurate to the profiles and accessories you have loaded, computed from your system library rather than estimated. A person still reviews every quotation before it goes out.
What file types can it read?
PDF drawings, DWG and DXF, spreadsheets, photographs of hand sketches and job sheets, and plain WhatsApp or email text. If a human estimator could work from it, that is the bar we hold ourselves to. Where something is genuinely unreadable it says so rather than guessing.
How accurate is the take-off?
The geometry is deterministic — once the AI has the sizes and the system, the cut lengths, glass sizes and weights are computed, not estimated. The judgement is in reading the enquiry correctly, which is exactly why every quotation goes to a human before it goes to a customer, with each assumption listed.
How long does setup take?
The work is loading your system library, section weights and rate card. Most fabricators already have these in a spreadsheet or a supplier catalogue, and that is enough to start. We do the loading with you rather than sending you a template to fill in.
What happens when our rates change?
You change the rate in one place and every quotation issued after that uses it. Quotations already sent keep the rate they were priced at, because a customer holding your quotation is entitled to the number on it.
Bring one enquiry. We will quote it while you watch.
Thirty minutes, your own drawing, no preparation. You keep the quotation, the elevation and the cutting list whether or not we go further.