Northspyre Launches GenAI Tool to Optimize Construction Bidding

Northspyre is launching a generative AI tool it says will eliminate scope gaps in the construction bidding process—one of the most frequent causes of cost overruns—and proactively flag cost-saving opportunities in every line item of the pre-development stage of a real estate project.

The proptech platform trained its new AI model, Northspyre AI, using hundreds of thousands of documents encompassing more than $175B in real estate development projects.

Northspyre AI’s large language model was trained on vendor agreements categorized by specific scopes of work, such as structural engineering or interior design. The platform reviews incoming vendor proposals, compares them with similar agreements and identifies any shortcomings in the proposed contracts.

“In today’s economic environment, where factors like rising construction and material costs and capital market illiquidity pose a constant threat to commercial real estate development, the need for the industry to capitalize on technology innovation has never been greater,” said William Sankey, Northspyre’s CEO.

“Developers are working with hundreds of vendors across a portfolio, which is extremely challenging when relying on outdated, manual reporting methods that are highly prone to human error. By leveraging AI to not only review budgets and incoming contracts but provide actionable suggestions for cost savings, developers are setting their projects up for success before a shovel even hits the ground,” Sankey said.

Northspyre, an NYC-based proptech platform focused on project delivery and capital management, said Northspyre AI will make vendor recommendations, automate the construction bidding process and rate vendors.

Northspyre AI reviews early project budgets and creates a proprietary “hungriness rating” using an algorithm that evaluates the likelihood that a vender is eager to bid aggressively on a given project based on data about the vendor, timing and established academic research on construction bidding.

The Northspyre AI algorithm predicts an estimate of how much a developer could save on a given budget line. The tool prompts users to invite suggested vendors to bid directly on those aspects of the project.

The platform automatically drafts responses to bidding vendors, requesting they update bids to reflect missing scope or clarify potentially missed items, reducing the potential for future change orders driven by scope gaps and vendor buyout misses.

Northspyre AI will allow users to rate vendors they have collaborated with, creating a reference for their teams to use on future projects. Users also can choose to share their feedback with the broader Northspyre community.

“Those who share enough reviews gain access to other users’ insights from across the platform, making it easier for developers to choose the right vendors by encouraging information sharing,” the company said, in a release.