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The estimator looked like he hadn’t slept in three days. Probably because he hadn’t.

I was sitting in the office of a commercial contractor last month when their lead estimator shuffled past with a coffee cup the size of a small bucket. On his desk: a stack of plans that could double as a doorstop, two monitors flickering with spreadsheets, and a stress ball that had clearly seen better days. “We’ve got four bids due yesterday,” he said, collapsing into his chair. “The drywall takeoff alone is going to take me through next week.” I asked him if he’d looked into any of the new AI takeoff tools. He laughed. “We tried one of those ’digital’ takeoff systems a few years back. Basically a fancy digital ruler. Still took forever.”

Here’s the thing: Mike isn’t wrong about those older tools. But what’s happening in preconstruction AI right now? It’s not a fancy digital ruler. It’s more like hiring five estimators who work 24/7, never complain, and finished their takeoffs while you were reading this paragraph. And if you’re not paying attention, your competitor probably is.

The Numbers That Should Keep You Up at Night

Let’s talk about what’s actually happening in the construction industry right now. According to the AGC’s 2025 Construction Hiring & Business Outlook, 44% of construction firms are planning to increase their spending on AI this year. Another 35% are specifically investing in estimating software. That’s not “maybe someday” money, that’s happening right now.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that cost estimator employment will decline by 4% from 2024 to 2034. Not because we need fewer estimates, quite the opposite. Projects are flooding the pipeline faster than ever. The decline is happening because AI is fundamentally changing what an estimator’s job looks like. The AI in construction market tells the story even more dramatically. We’re looking at roughly $4 billion in 2024, projected to hit nearly $23 billion by 2032. That’s a lot more than a gradual shift, that’s a tidal wave.

But here’s what really caught my attention: a recent RICS survey found that 45% of construction firms have no AI implementation at all, with another 34% still in early pilot phases. Less than 2% have AI embedded across multiple processes. Translation? We’re standing at a fork in the road. The early movers are about to leave everyone else in the dust.

What AI in Preconstruction Actually Looks Like (No Buzzwords, I Promise)

Let me paint you a picture of how this stuff actually works in the real world.

The Old Way: Your estimator gets a set of plans. They spend the next week, maybe two, manually counting doors, measuring walls and calculating square footage. They’re cross-referencing specs, hunting through hundreds of pages for details, and praying they didn’t miss that one change order buried on page 247.

The New Way: You upload those same plans to an AI-powered platform. The system reads the drawings, and I mean actually reads them, not just displays them digitally. It identifies rooms, counts fixtures, measures areas, and spits out a takeoff in minutes. Not hours. Not days. Minutes. We’re talking 90%+ accuracy on the first pass.

One early adopter contractor I spoke with put it this way: “We used to have one estimator doing takeoffs for only a few trades, taking nearly a week. Now we’re completing same-day takeoffs and shifting that time back to strategy and pricing.” That’s not science fiction. That’s a company using tools available right now.

The 6 Stages Where AI is Making Its Move

Let’s walk through the preconstruction process and see where these tools are actually delivering value today.

1. Pre-Design & Feasibility: Before you ever break ground, AI can crunch historical data from similar projects to predict whether a project is even viable. We’re talking financial projections, environmental impact assessments, and market analysis that would take a human team weeks to compile. Some firms are using AI-powered VR to create immersive project visualizations before a single line is drawn. Owners can “walk through” a building that doesn’t exist yet. It’s like a crystal ball, except it actually works.

2. Design Development: Here’s where things get interesting. Generative AI can now produce design alternatives by exploring thousands of permutations against your constraints: budget, timeline, site limitations, you name it. It’s not replacing architects; it’s giving them superpowers. Building Information Modeling (BIM) integrated with AI can detect clashes between disciplines in real-time. That electrical conduit running through a structural beam? The system catches it before it becomes a $50,000 field problem.

3. Construction Documents: AI tools using natural language processing can now scan specification books, contracts, and drawings to extract critical information automatically. No more hunting through 500-page spec books for that one material requirement. One platform I’ve been watching can automatically generate compliance checklists by comparing your documents against building codes. It flags non-compliant items before you ever submit for permit.

4. Bidding & Estimation: This is ground zero for the AI revolution in preconstruction. Modern AI takeoff tools claim 98% accuracy on quantity takeoffs and the contractors using them are reporting they’re bidding 2x to 4x more projects without adding headcount. One electrical subcontractor went from $900K to $2M in revenue in just a couple months after switching to AI-powered takeoffs. The math is pretty simple: more bids with the same team equals more wins. More wins equals more revenue. And when your estimates are more accurate, your margins are healthier too.

5. Permitting & Approvals: AI can now compare your construction documents against local building codes automatically. Some jurisdictions are even piloting AI-assisted permit review to speed up approval timelines. Machine learning models trained on historical permitting data can predict how long your approval process will take, helping you plan more realistic schedules.

6. Final Preconstruction: AI-powered contract management systems help organize and review project contracts, tracking milestones and flagging potential risks. Resource optimization tools can balance your project schedules against available crews and equipment.

The Honest Truth About Where We Are

Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you AI is magic. It’s not. A recent Dodge Construction Network survey found that 57% of contractors list “lack of reliability or accuracy in AI output” as their chief concern. Another 54% worry about data security and privacy. These are legitimate concerns. And here’s something the AI vendors won’t tell you: the technology works best when humans are still in the loop. AI can measure a room, but it can’t smell that the drywall in the existing building has water damage. It can count doors on a plan, but it can’t tell you the owner is going to change their mind three times before you break ground.

The estimators who thrive in this new world aren’t going to be replaced by robots. They’re going to be the ones who use these tools to handle the grunt work while they focus on what humans do best: relationships, judgment, strategy, and all those intangibles that win jobs. As one construction executive put it: “AI will not replace estimators. It cannot. The expertise, context, and judgment needed to price risk are uniquely human. But AI can and should eliminate the repetitive, high-friction work that consumes half the bid cycle.”

What This Means for Arizona Builders

Here in Arizona, we’re seeing commercial and residential construction that shows no signs of slowing down. The Phoenix metro alone has projects stacking up faster than we can staff them.

That creates both a problem and an opportunity. The problem: if your estimating capacity becomes your bottleneck, you’re going to miss bids. Period. And in a competitive market, missed bids mean missed opportunities. The opportunity: the firms that figure out how to increase their estimating capacity without proportionally increasing their overhead are going to win more work at better margins. AI is one path to that outcome.

I’ve been talking to contractors across Tucson and Phoenix, and the pattern is consistent: the ones who are thoughtfully integrating AI tools into their preconstruction workflows are reporting real results. Not “someday” results. Now results.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself

Before you write this off as “not for us” or “we’ll look at it next year,” ask yourself:

1. How many bids did you pass on last year because you didn’t have the capacity? Every one of those was potential revenue you left on the table.

2. What’s your average time from plan receipt to bid submission? If your competitor can turn that around 50% faster, what happens to your win rate?

3. Where is your estimating team spending their time? If the answer is “measuring walls and counting doors,” that’s time they’re not spending on pricing strategy, risk assessment, and building relationships with owners.

I’ve been in this industry long enough to have a healthy skepticism about “the next big thing.” I remember when everyone said paperless offices would solve all our problems. (My inbox says otherwise.) But what’s happening with AI in preconstruction isn’t hype. The tools are real, they’re getting better fast, and the contractors who adopt them are seeing measurable results.

You don’t have to bet the company on AI tomorrow. But you should probably know what’s out there. You should probably understand how it works. And you should probably have a plan for how your firm is going to respond as this technology goes from “early adopter” to “industry standard.” Because that transition is happening. The only question is whether you’ll be ahead of it or behind it.

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Computer Dimensions has been serving Arizona’s construction and AEC industry for over 20 years. We help builders implement technology that actually works for how construction teams operate, from knowledge management systems to field-ready mobile solutions. If you’re thinking about how technology can help you capture expertise and bridge generational gaps, let’s talk.

Let’s Build Together!

P.S. If you’re heading to the Arizona Builders Alliance or ASA events this quarter, come find us. We’d love to hear what technology challenges you’re facing on your jobs. Sometimes the best insights come from conversations, not blog posts.