Construction teams have bids, specifications, cost reports, and years of project records. The difficult part is turning that information into a clear understanding of what a project includes and what it should cost.
We introduced Federated Context Estimation (FCE), Aestor's proprietary approach to document analysis, to support that work. Built in-house for construction estimating and portfolio review, FCE helps teams investigate their project information and examine the evidence behind an answer.
Cost needs context
A price tells you very little without the scope behind it. Two bids can cover different work. A historical rate can include equipment that the next project does not require. An allowance can change the meaning of an otherwise familiar total.
FCE supports questions that connect those details: what is included, where the documents disagree, and which assumptions need a closer look. The aim is to give the team a useful basis for reviewing the cost.
Review what the price covers
Consider a restaurant fit-out where the mechanical bid excludes kitchen ventilation, but the specification requires it. The team needs to understand the gap before treating that bid as a complete price for the work.
With Aestor, an estimator can investigate the documents behind that comparison and review the supporting sources. A question about price becomes a specific clarification to raise with the contractor: who is carrying the missing scope?
Use your project history
Completed projects hold useful knowledge about costs, specifications, allowances, and delivery conditions. Applying that knowledge to a new estimate requires understanding which comparisons are appropriate.
FCE helps teams explore their own project records with that purpose in mind. An estimator can investigate a trade allowance. A project manager can examine a scope change. A portfolio team can review the reasons costs differ between locations. Understanding the scope included in each figure makes those comparisons more useful.
Keep the evidence available
An answer is more useful when someone else can review its basis. FCE connects findings to supporting sources so your team can inspect a figure, question an assumption, and explain a decision to a colleague or client.
Your team keeps the judgment on scope, quantities, and the estimate itself. Missing information still needs clarification. The goal is a clearer, auditable basis for making that decision.
Built around construction decisions
Published research on AI and document analysis informs our work. The studies linked below examine how system design can affect the quality of an answer. They provide background research, not measurements of FCE's performance.
Our focus is the practical work of estimating: understanding scope, reviewing costs, and explaining the assumptions behind a budget. FCE helps your team use its own project information to answer those questions.
Sources: Research on AI system design; Research on AI document analysis