Construction Bid Leveling AI Agent — Reads Every Sub Bid, Finds Every Scope Gap, Before You Award the Contract

The Problem

Every sub sends a different document.
None of them match.

Before you can compare prices, someone has to manually read every bid and rewrite it into the same format. Here’s what your estimator is dealing with — and what the AI sees instead.

⚠ What your inbox looks like

📎 Apex_Framing_Bid.pdf PDF

⚠ Cleanup not mentioned. Temp protection says “N/A.”

📊 IW_Bid_Sheet_v3_FINAL.xlsx XLSX

⚠ “Hardware allowance” — what does that cover exactly?

✉ Summit Build — email body only EMAIL

⚠ Lump sum only. No line items. Can't compare this to anything.

⟶

✓ What the AI gives you instead

AI-Leveled Summary — Apex Framing Co.

Rough Framing Labor $312,000 Found

Equipment / Crane $28,500 Found

Hardware & Fasteners est. $18,200 Verify

Daily Cleanup not in bid Gap ⚠

Temp Protection excluded Gap ⚠

Real total: ~$362,500 not the $340,500 they quoted

📄 The AI does this for all 5 subs automatically — same format, same line items, side by side. Then it tells you who’s actually cheapest when you count everything.

👈 Interactive Demo — Click through or hit Run Demo to auto-play

Walk through the same steps the AI takes on a real job — from the moment bids hit your inbox to the final report that lands in your PM’s email.

Meridian Mixed-Use — Framing Package · 5 Subcontractors

Your bid inbox — 5 submissions, 5 different formats

The AI agent watches this inbox. The moment a bid lands — doesn’t matter if it’s a PDF, a spreadsheet, a Word doc, or just an email — it starts reading. Click any bid below to watch it work, or hit Run Demo to process all five.

Apex Framing Co.

Sent as PDF attachment · received 9:14 AM · 1.2 MB

PDF

$340,500

Waiting

Ironwood Structures

Sent as Excel spreadsheet · received 10:38 AM · 84 KB

XLSX

$339,400

Waiting

Summit Build Group

Sent as email body only · no attachment · received 11:02 AM

$349,000

Waiting

Pacific Frame & Panel

Sent as Word document · received 1:47 PM · 342 KB

DOCX

$355,100

Waiting

Cascade Carpentry

Sent as PDF attachment · received 2:31 PM · 2.1 MB

PDF

$330,300

Waiting

💡 In real life, this inbox connects directly to your company email. Bids are processed automatically as they arrive — no one has to click anything.

Built with Claude

Claude AI

n8n

Make.com

Gmail

Outlook

Google Sheets

Airtable

The AI reads the raw document and pulls out every line item

On the left is the actual bid document — exactly what the sub sent. On the right, watch the AI go through it line by line, find each cost item, and flag anything that’s missing or unclear. Select any subcontractor below.

Raw document — exactly what the sub sent

Apex Framing Co.PDF

What the AI found in this document

Reading & extracting scope items

Ready

Select a sub above to watch the AI read their bid.

All 5 bids lined up in the same format — finally comparable

Toggle between “As Submitted” (what each sub actually sent) and “AI Adjusted” (with gaps filled in and real totals recalculated). The low bidder changes when you count everything.

📈 Green = cheapest for that line · Orange = unusually high · Red/italic = missing or excluded

What we’re comparing	Apex Framing	Ironwood	Summit Build	Pacific F&P	Cascade

Lowest price for that line item

Unusually high (more than 25% above the others)

Missing, excluded, or can’t be compared

What the AI flagged before you award the job

The AI found 6 issues across 4 of the 5 bids. Two of them are serious enough to change your award decision — the kind of thing that turns into a change order halfway through the job. Review these before you sign anything.

Apex — Daily cleanup wasn’t priced in

Red Flag

Apex didn’t include daily debris removal anywhere in their bid — and they didn’t say they were leaving it out either. It’s just not there.

That’s an $8,000–$12,000 gap. Their real number is closer to $352,500 — not $340,500.

Summit — One number, no breakdown

Red Flag

Summit sent a single number — $349,000 — with no line items. You can’t compare this to anyone else. What’s in it? What’s not? Nobody knows.

Don’t award this until you get a full breakdown from them in writing.

Ironwood — “Hardware allowance” is vague

Watch This

Ironwood listed a “hardware allowance” for $14,200. An allowance means they’re estimating — if the actual hardware costs more, you pay the difference. That number could go up.

Ask them to confirm what the allowance covers before you make a decision.

Pacific — Temporary weather protection missing

Watch This

Your contract documents require temporary moisture protection (tarps, wrap) while framing is exposed. Pacific didn’t address this anywhere in their bid.

Estimated gap: $5,000–$7,000. Get clarification before you award.

Apex — Foreman cost lumped in with labor

Double-Check

Apex listed supervision as “included” without breaking it out. Other subs are pricing a dedicated foreman at $18,000–$22,000. Could be absorbed in their labor rate — or just forgotten.

Worth a quick call to confirm before you finalize their number.

Cascade — Clean bid, everything accounted for

Clean

Cascade is the only sub who priced every item on your scope list, wrote out what’s included and what’s excluded, and gave you a real line-by-line breakdown.

Real adjusted total: $335,500 — the safest award and the actual low bid.

The AI writes and sends the summary email to your project manager

Once the analysis is done, the AI drafts this email automatically and sends it to whoever needs to see it. Everything they need to make an award decision — all in one place.

Gmail · written by the AI agent

bids-agent@meridian-gc.com

sarah.kim@meridian-gc.com, james.lu@meridian-gc.com

Subject

Framing Bids Ready for Review — 5 Subs Analyzed · 2 Issues to Address

Step by step

Here’s exactly how it works

Three things happen automatically — from the moment a bid hits your inbox to the moment your project manager gets the summary. Nobody has to do any of this manually.

📤

Step 1

A bid arrives in your email — any format, any template

The system watches your bid inbox. The second an email arrives with an attachment — PDF, Excel, Word doc, or just a plain email — it automatically picks it up and starts processing. You don’t have to click anything or download anything.

This step is set up using n8n or Make.com — tools that connect your email to the rest of the system.

→

🤖

Step 2

The AI reads the document and pulls out every cost item

Claude AI reads the bid the same way a senior estimator would — it finds every line item, figures out what’s included, what’s excluded, and what’s just not there. It maps everything to your standard scope list so all 5 subs end up in the same format, side by side.

This replaces Procore Estimating and BuildingConnected Pro — which run $30,000–$80,000 per year.

→

📋

Step 3

Your PM gets a summary email with everything they need

The AI writes a summary email, attaches the comparison spreadsheet, and sends it to whoever you choose. Your project manager gets a clear picture of all 5 bids — real totals, gaps flagged, and a list of questions to ask each sub before awarding.

Results go into Google Sheets and Airtable so your team can always find the latest version in one place.

What this replaces

Enterprise software charges $30,000–$80,000 a year for this.

Here’s what GCs are paying right now to solve the same problem — and what they pay when they let us build this for them instead.

Procore Estimating Current option

$30,000+

per year, enterprise contract

Bid leveling built in

Works with most formats

Long-term contract required

You rent it — you don’t own it

Still requires manual setup per project

BuildingConnected Pro Current option

$40,000+

per year, enterprise contract

Good bid management tools

Invitation to bid workflow

Subs have to use their system too

You rent it — you don’t own it

Price goes up every year

Your in-house estimator Current option

2 days

per bid package, every time

Understands the job

Can ask follow-up questions

2 full days per package

Errors when they’re rushed

Can only work one package at a time

Omni AI Agent What we build
You own it
one-time build · no annual fees
Works on every format automatically
Processes each bid in about 45 seconds
Flags every scope gap before award
Sends the PM summary automatically
You own it — not a subscription

Construction Bid Leveling AI Agent — Reads Every Subcontractor Bid, Finds Every Scope Gap, Before You Award the Contract

Every sub sends a different document.None of them match.

Here’s exactly how it works

Enterprise software charges $30,000–$80,000 a year for this.

Every sub sends a different document.
None of them match.