What an AI agent does in a bid, and what it doesn't

The agent reads the documents. It does not submit the bid or set the price.

By AI agent we mean a program that is given a task, such as going through a tender package, and takes the steps itself: opening the documents, reading, comparing and compiling. It is a tool for reading and preparation. The decisions stay with you.

What the agent does

• Reads every document, including the appendices that rarely get read.
• Lists requirements, risks, deadlines and contradictions with document and page.
• Compares the contract terms with AB 04 or ABT 06 and marks departures.
• Splits the documents by trade so subcontractors can price their part.
• Writes drafts: questions to the client, memos and subcontracts.

What it doesn't do

• It does not decide whether you bid.
• It does not set the price. The estimate rests on your costs, your capacity and your experience.
• It sends nothing to clients or subcontractors until someone on your side has approved it.
• It does not replace a construction lawyer when a clause is unclear.

How to check it

AI can be wrong. It can miss a requirement buried in a table or misread a scanned page. That is why every finding should have a source you can click. Check the findings that affect the price most against the original text, and have a person confirm or dismiss every risk. A good tool also shows which documents were read and which could not be.

Three questions for the vendor

Where are your documents stored? Are they used to train AI models? And who on your side has to approve before anything is sent? Get the answers in writing before you upload a tender package.

Where the time goes

What changes is where the time goes. Less time searching, more time judging: which risks you price, which questions you ask and which jobs you bid for.