Construction & Field Services
Help crews find the right drawings and information faster.
Modern systems and AI for contractors and field-service firms, with your people making the calls.
Construction & Field Services
See what changed in a new drawing, and who still has the old one.
When the architect re-issues a drawing, each change is listed with its location, and crews still on the old revision are flagged.
Illustration: a re-issued drawing lists its three changes with their locations, and flags that one crew is still working from the old revision.
Illustration. Names and details are invented.
What we hear
Where the work gets stuck
Four problems we hear from owners and operations leads of contractors and field-service firms.
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Hunting for the current version.
The latest drawing, change order or photo is somewhere, but the field and the office are looking at different copies.
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Not enough crew for the work.
Skilled people are hard to hire, and every delay ripples down the schedule.
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Margin is lost between the bid and close-out.
Extra work goes unbilled, and change orders arrive late.
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Second trips and slow invoices.
The wrong part or missing history means a return visit, and paperwork after the job delays billing.
The insight
Where a construction week goes
More than a third of a construction team’s week went on searching, arguing and redoing.
A 40.5-hour week
14.1 hours lost: 35% of the week
- 11.2 hours Running and coordinating the project
- 8.2 hours Talking with project stakeholders
- 7 hours Organising the site and people
- 5.5 hours Looking for project information
- 4.7 hours Settling conflicts
- 3.9 hours Fixing mistakes and rework
And crews are still hard to find. The share of US contractors surveyed with projects delayed by worker shortages:
Source: AGC and NCCER, 2025
Sources: FMI and PlanGrid, Construction Disconnected, 2018, a long-standing benchmark and a widely cited study of where construction time goes. It surveyed nearly 600 construction leaders around the world. AGC and NCCER, 2025 Workforce Survey. Segment names are our plain wording of the report’s categories.
Read this chart as a list
In a 40.5-hour week, construction teams spent 11.2 hours running the project, 8.2 talking with stakeholders and 7 organising the site. They lost 5.5 hours looking for information, 4.7 settling conflicts and 3.9 fixing mistakes: 14.1 hours, or 35% of the week (FMI and PlanGrid, 2018). The share of US contractors surveyed with projects delayed by worker shortages was 66% in 2022, 61% in 2023, 54% in 2024 and 45% in 2025 (AGC and NCCER, 2025).
The numbers
What is at stake
Every figure is from the named public source and year. Select a source to read it.
45%
of US contractors surveyed had projects delayed by worker shortages in the past year.
83%
of contractors with craft openings say those jobs are as hard or harder to fill than a year ago.
40,600
openings a year for HVAC technicians expected over the next decade.
35%
of a construction team’s week went on searching, disputes and rework, in a widely cited 2018 study of where the time goes.
Stage by stage
Where job work slips
Choose a stage to see what slips today, where AI can help and what your people decide.
Stage 1 Bid
- What slips today
- Estimates are rebuilt from old files, and scope gaps show up later.
- Where AI can help
- Pull past jobs, prices and the drawings into a draft estimate.
- Your people decide
- The price to the client.
What it looks like
The estimator can start from the most similar past jobs, not a blank sheet.
Stage 2 Plan the job
- What slips today
- Crews are stretched thin, and every delay ripples down the schedule.
- Where AI can help
- Bring crews, deliveries and permits into one weekly look-ahead.
- Your people decide
- Who goes where, and when.
45%
of US contractors surveyed had projects delayed by worker shortages in 2025. AGC and NCCER, 2025
Stage 3 Build on site
- What slips today
- The field and the office look at different copies of the drawings.
- Where AI can help
- Send each foreman a short daily note of what changed on their jobs.
- Your people decide
- The safety stop, and how the work is done.
5.5 hours
a week went on looking for project information (a 2018 benchmark). FMI and PlanGrid, 2018
Stage 4 Change orders
- What slips today
- Extra work goes unbilled, and change orders arrive late.
- Where AI can help
- Check site notes and photos for work outside the contract, and draft the change order.
- Your people decide
- The change order, and what to charge.
What it looks like
The project manager gets a draft change order the same day the extra work is spotted.
Stage 5 Service and close-out
- What slips today
- The wrong part or missing history means a second trip, and paperwork delays billing.
- Where AI can help
- Give the technician the equipment’s history before the call, and draft the report after it.
- Your people decide
- The fix, and the invoice.
40,600
HVAC technician openings a year expected over the next decade. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026
Where we would start
Three places to start
Each one uses information you already have. Your people make the decisions.
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One daily picture of what changed.
Each foreman and project manager gets a short daily summary of new drawings, questions and change orders on their jobs, so crews can call the office less to ask which version is current.
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Extra work recorded and billed.
Site notes, photos and messages are checked for work outside the contract, and a draft change order is ready for the project manager the same day, so less work is done for free.
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Jobs prepared before the crew leaves.
Before a service call, the technician gets the equipment’s history, likely parts and past fixes. After the job, the notes become a draft report and invoice for the office to check.
- Your tools today: Site photos, Drawings, Change orders and Service history
- One current record, owned by your firm
- Your people decide
The difference
What changes with Joan
- Field and office can work from the same current information.
- Designed to catch more extra work, so less is done for free.
- The aim: fewer return trips, and invoices that go out sooner.
- Your project records and the way your crews work stay with your firm, so you can change software or AI later without starting over.
Client work
Already at work in Construction & Field Services.
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QSaraA construction-technology company. Two AI digital workers in Claude carry its client onboarding and client success work, with its client success lead approving each step.Read the QSara story
Security and compliance
What your compliance officer will ask
Three plain answers. Joan builds the controls; your firm decides how they meet its own obligations.
Can we find our project records later?
Yes. We build in your own accounts wherever we can, so daily reports and project files stay in your own systems, where your team can find them months later.
Who can see which project?
Each person signs in with their own account and sees what their role allows, project by project.
Can AI change a schedule or a contract?
Not on its own. AI drafts and checks; a named person approves each change.
Keep reading
Useful for every firm
- How to keep your firm’s know-how when you change AI modelsModels are rented. What your firm knows, and how it works, should not be. Read the article
- Deciding which work goes to AI, and who checks itBuying AI licenses is the easy part. The value comes from deciding which work goes to AI, and who checks it. Read the article
- What your AI is allowed to accessThe useful question is what your AI can reach when it gets something wrong. Read the article
Next step
Tell us where the work gets stuck.
Tell us what slows your crews or your office down. Please leave out customer and project details.
Start a conversation