Short answer: Tristan Wilson says no: AI makes estimators more efficient, but they still review every page and remain responsible for the job. He says AI caught an owner's conflicting completion terms that a careful reviewer had missed.
Watch this answer from Episode 16 (starts at 15:45) · Episode 16 notes and transcript
From Episode 16: AI Agents Reinvent Construction, starting at 15:45.
Sam Nadler [15:44]: You made a comment at the beginning, something about we're not here to replace estimators. And, we've pursued here at Ryz Labs some AI solutions that I think for the, like, ideal ICP or the ideal kind of customer, they're you know, initially, even though, like, we think it saves them tons of time and generates tons of efficiency, there was a little bit of, I guess, fear, trepidation, maybe even a little bit of resistance until they kinda see the product and see how it, like, really benefits them. Are you experiencing that at all with the estimators or the clients you're working with? Or are they like, oh my god. This is the greatest solution. Like, I'm you know, this is the best.
Tristan Wilson [16:27]: This is a great question. I mean, I think we see a broad spectrum of different reactions to when we say AI. I know I've, like, present it to large groups of PMs and project managers and estimators where there's a lot of fear in the room. And I think it's important to understand and define, like, what AI is. Right? How it's there, how it can be there to help us, and then also how it's just a tool and it doesn't necessarily replace the person who is doing the important work of figuring out what's it gonna cost us to go build this job. It just makes that person a heck of a lot better, a heck of a lot more efficient, and able to spend times on the stuff that matters. Like, hand entering a 120 items does not make you a better estimator. All it does, it basically makes you spend time on stuff that doesn't matter. And if you compare two companies and one company has the power of AI and they're using it, they're able to spend a lot more time on the stuff that really matters compared to somebody who isn't using it and is doing it, the way of manual entry.
Tristan Wilson [17:37]: But that doesn't mean that we don't still need to review every page, that we still don't need to review every single document, and that we're still not fully responsible for the job as the estimator. And knowing how to do it the old school way is important. It's just now how can we apply these new tools to help us make you know, to help make us more, more efficient and more accurate and also catch things that we might have missed? Like, I had a really cool thing the other day where somebody ran a bid, somebody put a bid package in, and they had actually gone through and reviewed this thing in great detail, highlighted stuff and everything. And the AI actually caught something in the bid where the owner gave them conflicting information. The owner said, hey. The project should be completed in this many days, but then when you look deep down on the contract, it actually conflicted with what the owner said in another part. And we're human. Right? There are things that we miss, and the AI can help us catch those things that we might have missed so that that doesn't become a dispute or a claim later on down the line, for the successful bidder.
Tristan Wilson [18:40]: Part of doing this job is figuring out if anything's wrong with the documents that you've been provided and letting the owner know, hey. There's a problem here. Right? And it's really hard when you're so busy. You'd you might miss things in AI. It doesn't get tired. It and it's one great rule of thumb that I make sure to tell to everybody that we work with is that assume this is the worst AI that you're ever gonna use. Right? Because it's just going to keep getting better. Right? And we can use it to our advantage. And I think estimators are awesome. Like, I am an estimator, so I would not also, like, I've this is kind of who I am. It's in my DNA. And I don't think that estimators should be there in the 10:00 the night before the bid trying to crank and get stuff done. Why not use this great technology that's available to us just to help us do our job a little bit better and a little bit faster?
Sam Nadler [19:35]: Amazing.
