Construction AI from the ITECS Dallas team
AI Solutions for Construction Companies
ITECS builds governed AI for general contractors, specialty trade contractors, and design-build firms of 50 to 300 people. A WIP and change-order recovery agent reconciles job cost, commitments, and pay applications into a traced monthly WIP, finds performed work that was never billed, and leaves each figure, billing, and notice with a PM, controller, or counsel.
Contractors do not need AI that guesses at percent complete. They need AI that reads the accounting system, the project platform, and the billing portal together, explains what changed since last month, and gives the surety and the bank numbers someone can stand behind.
Construction signal map
Jobs + billing + risk
Jobs
Job cost, commitments, and forecasts
Billing
Pay apps, change orders, and retainage
Risk
Fade, liens, and surety reporting
Field-tested IT behind construction AI
Construction AI from a team that already supports Dallas contractors in the office and the field.
ITECS supports Dallas general contractors, specialty trades, and construction-management teams across offices, job trailers, field devices, and platforms such as Procore, Autodesk Construction Cloud, and Bluebeam. ITECS AI builds on that base and keeps the same boundary: it does not replace the software publisher, your CPA, your surety, or your counsel. Read about ITECS construction IT services.
3.2% to 5.0%
Average cost added by change orders across 18,229 completed U.S. building projects, with most changes in the second half of a job.
AIA Contract Documents, 202310%
Since Sept. 1, 2023, Texas contractors may decline owner-directed extra work once unsigned change orders pass 10% of the original contract.
Texas Property Code ch. 2866,179
Housing units authorized by building permits in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2025, the most of any U.S. metro area.
U.S. Census Building Permits Survey
Operating pressure
Construction AI Starts With Margin, Cash, and Control
The first step is not picking a model. It is finding where earned work goes unbilled, where the WIP drifts from the field, and where documents and deadlines slip between the office and the job.
Margin pressure
Thin margins leave little room for fade discovered late or change work that is never recovered.
- Profit fade found at year-end instead of month-end
- Cost-to-complete forecasts that lag the field
- Labor overruns that inflate percent complete
- Uninstalled materials treated inconsistently
Cash pressure
Underbillings tie up working capital and draw surety scrutiny, and many trace to change work stuck in the approval loop.
- Owner-directed work performed without an executed change order
- Approved changes never added to the schedule of values
- Pay applications returned for errors or omissions
- Retainage and lien deadlines tracked from memory
Control pressure
AI is only usable when it respects contract terms, project access, and the people who sign billings and notices.
- Claims and change negotiations that may become dispute evidence
- Superseded drawings and specs mixed with current sets
- Joint-venture and owner-confidential projects that must stay isolated
- Certified payroll and HR data that few people should see
Example WIP signal board
The Metrics a Construction AI System Should Make Visible
A WIP and change-order program should show the CFO where earned work is unbilled, which changes are stuck, and where fade is building. These figures are illustrative for a fictional 180-person mechanical contractor with 38 active jobs; discovery replaces them with the company's own data.
Underbilling bridge
Where earned work goes unbilled
Net underbillings
$2.14M
Earned $52.1M against $49.96M billed across 38 jobs
Pending change orders
$1.86M
64 unapproved requests, averaging 41 days old
Gross-profit fade this month
-0.9 pts
Weighted estimate moved from 17.8% to 16.9%
Jobs past the Texas 10% threshold
3 of 38
Unsigned owner-directed work above 10% of the original contract
What leadership sees
- Traces each WIP figure to a source record and a reviewer
- Separates recoverable change work from true fade before the WIP meeting
- Routes change packets, entries, and notices to a named approver
Construction AI use cases
Where AI Creates Measurable Value for Contractors
Start where the data already exists in job cost, the project platform, and billing, and where a PM or controller already owns the decision.
WIP & Over/Under Billing
Compute cost-to-cost percent complete, earned revenue, over and under billings, and fade or gain by job, with variance notes traced to the source record.
A draft WIP each month, ready for review
Change-Order & Claims Recovery
Compare T&M tickets, field directives, RFIs, and daily logs with the change-order log and schedule of values, and queue each gap with its evidence.
Performed work packaged for approval and billing
Pay Application Preparation
Draft AIA-style G702/G703 or GC-format pay apps from the schedule of values, stored materials, approved changes, and retainage, checked against job cost.
Fewer pay apps returned for errors
Subcontractor Compliance
Check certificates of insurance, conditional and unconditional lien waivers, and certified payroll against contract terms before each payment.
Payments released with current paperwork
Bid-Day Spec & Scope Review
Read the spec book, addenda, and bid forms to build a scope-gap matrix by trade and flag terms such as pay-if-paid, notice periods, and liquidated damages.
Scope gaps caught before the bid
Submittal & RFI Assistance
Compare submittals with the governing spec section and draft RFIs with drawing references, as desktop agents or alongside platform AI.
Cleaner first passes for PMs and engineers
Daily Log & Owner Reports
Summarize superintendent logs, manpower, deliveries, and photos into weekly owner reports, flagging possible delay or change events.
Consistent reports and earlier change flags
Safety Paperwork & Incident Review
Draft job hazard analyses and toolbox talks, and classify incident narratives for OSHA recordkeeping review by the safety manager.
Faster, consistent safety documentation
Closeout & Warranty Knowledge Base
Answer warranty and service questions from O&M manuals, as-builts, RFIs, and submittals, with project-level access control.
Fewer lost documents after closeout
Flagship enterprise agent
WIP & Change-Order Recovery Agent: A WIP Your Surety Can Trust
An illustrative solution design, not a reported client result. The agent prepares and checks; the PM, controller, CFO, and counsel decide.
Freeze the month-end snapshot
The agent pulls job cost, committed cost, billings, PM forecasts, and change events at cutoff, with record IDs, so each later figure traces to the snapshot.
Compute the WIP
It calculates cost-to-cost percent complete, earned revenue, over and under billings, and fade or gain by job, and flags uninstalled materials and rework for the controller's ASC 606 judgment.
Find unbilled change work
It compares T&M tickets, field directives, RFIs, and overruns with the change-order log and schedule of values, and tracks unsigned owner-directed work against the Texas 10% threshold and Chapter 53 lien dates.
PMs, the controller, and counsel approve
PMs confirm cost to complete and approve each change packet. The controller approves the WIP and the staged over/under entry, and counsel approves any claim or notice.
Human approval point
Release to the bank and surety
The CFO releases the WIP. Approved changes become draft requests in the project platform, and the audit trail records each source, threshold, and reviewer.
Human approval point
What it reads
- Job cost, budgets, billings, and commitments from the accounting system
- Change events, RFIs, daily logs, and T&M tickets from the project platform
- Pay applications and portal status from the billing system
- Contract terms: notice periods, markups, retainage, and project type for lien dates
What it never does on its own
- Sets percent complete or cost to complete on its own
- Posts journal entries or sends a billing to an owner or GC
- Submits a change order, claim, lien notice, or Texas 10% election
- Smooths the WIP or releases it to a bank or surety without the CFO
Two kinds of construction agents
Company-Wide Agents and Desktop Agents
ITECS builds two kinds of agents for contractors. Each has its own owner, controls, and rollout path.
Engineered by ITECS
Enterprise hosted agents
Engineered by ITECS, connected to the accounting system, project platform, and billing portals, and run in a governed hosted environment with a review portal and audit trail. Company leadership owns them: the CFO, controller, or COO.
- WIP and change-order recovery across accounting, project, and billing systems
- Subcontractor insurance, lien waiver, and certified payroll checks
- Bid-day spec and scope review for estimating
Built with your team
Personal desktop agents
Built with PMs, estimators, superintendents, and project accountants in Claude, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Copilot on their own machines, then rolled out through hands-on training. Department heads own them.
- Submittal checks against the spec section for PMs
- RFI drafts with drawing and spec references
- Weekly owner reports from daily logs and photos
Systems construction agents read
- Procore
- Autodesk Construction Cloud
- Bluebeam
- Sage 300 CRE
- Sage Intacct Construction
- Viewpoint Vista
- Viewpoint Spectrum
- Foundation
- Acumatica
- Textura
- Siteline
- Microsoft 365
Technologies ITECS evaluates and integrates through supported APIs and exports; listing a product does not imply a formal partnership or a certified connector. Discovery confirms the systems each company runs.
Start here
Construction AI Readiness Assessment
ITECS starts by mapping the business case, job-cost data quality, integration path, and governance model before recommending an agent build.
Map finance and field priorities
Identify where WIP, change orders, pay apps, and compliance paperwork leak cash, margin, or staff time.
Review systems and data quality
Assess job cost, commitments, project platform records, and billing for completeness, cost coding, and access by project.
Rank use cases by economics
Prioritize by underbillings recovered, fade caught earlier, hours returned, and feasibility, starting where data already arrives.
Write the governed path
Document approval points, write-back limits, project-level access, audit logging, and vendor terms before any production build.
Governance
Built Around the People Who Sign
ITECS designs construction AI so the agent prepares and checks, while PMs, controllers, CFOs, and counsel keep the judgments, billings, and notices.
Evidence, not smoothing
Sureties scrutinize underbillings and fade and can disallow underbillings they doubt, so the agent's value is consistency and traceability.
- Each WIP figure traced to a source record and a reviewer
- Revenue-recognition calls left to the controller and CPA
- Data gaps such as missing logs or uncoded costs reported, not guessed around
- Changes tested against prior closed months before go-live
Project-level boundaries
Agents inherit project access from the source systems, and commercial or legal documents leave only with a named approver.
- PMs see their jobs; joint-venture and owner-confidential projects stay isolated
- Claims workspaces restricted, with counsel reviewing claim and notice language
- Certified payroll and HR detail limited to the people who need it
- SOC 2 Type II applies only if Promus managed cloud hosting is selected
Security
Security for Construction AI Workflows
Construction AI touches contracts, job costs, pay applications, and sometimes payroll data. ITECS designs these systems with project-scoped access, audit logs, and named approval before anything reaches an owner, GC, bank, or surety.
FAQ
Construction AI FAQ
Will the agent decide our percent complete or post entries to our ERP?
No. Percent complete comes from cost to date and your PM's estimate to complete; the agent calculates it, flags stale forecasts, and stages entries for your controller to approve.
Our surety and bank rely on our WIP. Does AI make that riskier?
Sureties scrutinize underbillings and fade and can disallow underbillings they doubt. The agent adds evidence and consistency, with each figure traced to a source record and a reviewer, while your CFO and CPA own the final schedule.
How does it find change orders we haven't billed?
It compares T&M tickets, field directives, RFIs, daily logs, and cost-code overruns with your change-order log and schedule of values, then queues each gap with its documents for PM approval. AIA data on 18,229 projects shows change orders cluster in the second half of a job, when tracking slips.
Procore and Autodesk are adding AI agents. Why a separate agent?
Platform agents work inside their own platform. WIP and change-order recovery need your accounting system, project platform, and billing portals reconciled in one governed workflow, so ITECS builds the cross-system agent and uses platform AI where it fits.
How do Texas lien and change-order rules factor in?
The agent computes Chapter 53 notice and affidavit dates by job and flags when unsigned owner-directed work passes the 10% threshold in Property Code section 28.0091. Your counsel or claims lead approves any notice or election, and the agent does not give legal advice.
