Emma Robot – Automate Complex Workflows with AI

Project Planning & Estimation

Determining project scope, schedule, and budget before construction begins. This involves collating design documents, materials requirements, labor costs, and projected timelines.

Step 1

Gather Project Requirements

Construction often starts with a set of architectural drawings, feasibility studies, and client specifications. Manually extracting cost-related details from lengthy PDFs or CAD files is time-consuming. With AI, Emma can parse drawings, read project briefs, and compile a list of requirements using tools like Bluebeam, PlanSwift, or Procore. This reduces human error in identifying essential specs like materials needed or site constraints.

Step 2

Estimate Materials & Labor

Estimating staff typically rely on experience and spreadsheets to price out quantities and labor hours. This process is prone to underestimating costs or missing items. Emma pulls data from historical cost databases and automatically applies relevant rates from platforms such as RSMeans or Sage Estimating, speeding up the quote generation process and boosting accuracy.

Step 3

Build Preliminary Schedules

Construction milestones rely on sequential activities—e.g., site prep, foundation, framing, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing). Manually stitching these together is labor-intensive. Emma can read through Gantt charts in Microsoft Project or Primavera P6, consolidating each task’s duration, resources, and deadlines. By doing so, Emma helps identify scheduling conflicts early on, preventing costly rework.

Step 4

Identify Risk Factors

Weather conditions, supply chain delays, and local permitting requirements are all risk multipliers. Manual checklists might skip or undervalue these risks. Emma scans relevant data (e.g., local regulations, historical weather patterns), and flags potential pitfalls in a risk register on platforms like Procore or PMWeb. This keeps project managers aware of contingencies.

Step 5

Present Draft Budgets & Timelines

Once the estimates and schedules are in place, managers must create a cohesive presentation or proposal. Emma merges cost spreadsheets, timeline visuals, and potential risk analysis into one polished document. This final package can be automatically emailed to stakeholders through integration with apps like Microsoft Teams or SharePoint, ensuring quick decision-making and reducing wait times.

Bidding & Proposal Management

Responding to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) or soliciting bids from subcontractors and suppliers. This step often decides profitability and competitiveness for construction firms.

Receive & Parse RFPs

RFP documents are frequently long, detailed, and contain multiple attachments. Manually sifting through them to extract scope, deadlines, or qualification criteria is tedious. Emma uses OCR to scan the PDF or Word document, automatically highlighting key sections like deliverables, submission dates, and evaluation criteria. Integrations with Procore or BuildingConnected make it easy to store and organize these RFPs.

Prepare Bill of Quantities (BOQ)

A BOQ itemizes all materials and works to be performed, which must then be priced. Typically, estimators copy data from the RFP into spreadsheets. With Emma’s AI, key lines are extracted from the RFP and cross-referenced with historical data in Sage Estimating or HCSS. This speeds up pricing tasks and ensures no line items are missed.

Collaborate with Stakeholders

Teams often exchange multiple drafts of a bid proposal via email or shared drives. Manually tracking versions is a hassle. Emma centralizes feedback and merges edits in tools like Microsoft SharePoint or Google Workspace, allowing project managers to see real-time changes without sifting through endless email threads.

Generate & Send Final Proposal

Once the proposal is finalized, formatting it professionally and ensuring all attachments (drawings, insurance certificates, references) are included can be error-prone. Emma automatically compiles these into a single package, typically in DocuSign or Adobe Sign, then sends it to the client or general contractor. This cuts hours of copy-paste, guaranteeing a polished, on-time submission.

Track Bid Status & Follow-Up

Many companies lose bids simply because they didn’t follow up or missed a revision request from the client. Emma automates reminders for post-submission updates, flags potential addendums, and documents all communications in platforms like Procore or BidClerk. This keeps the entire bidding pipeline organized, preventing lost opportunities.

Procurement & Vendor Management

Acquiring raw materials, equipment, and services from third-party vendors or subcontractors. Efficient procurement ensures projects aren’t delayed by missing supplies or inflated costs.

From steel beams to HVAC installation, construction projects have a multitude of needs. Manually extracting these from design specs and listing them out is time-consuming. Emma reviews project BOMs (Bills of Materials) in Autodesk Build or Revit, creating a concise, itemized procurement list.

Managers email or call multiple suppliers to get quotes. Emma automates this by sending standardized RFQs, capturing email responses, and storing price lists in a single repository. Software like Procore or Oracle Textura can integrate with Emma to compare quotes, highlight the best pricing, and log supplier lead times in a fraction of the time it takes manually.

Once a supplier is selected, generating a PO involves copying line items, addresses, and scheduled delivery dates. Manual PO creation can result in typos or incomplete info. Emma populates and sends POs via SAP Ariba or Oracle Procurement Cloud, eliminating back-and-forth data entry and ensuring consistency across documentation.

Coordinating delivery schedules is another challenge—materials might arrive late or partially. Emma watches shipping confirmations, matches them to purchase orders, and flags any discrepancies. Once deliveries are verified, Emma processes supplier invoices in accounting solutions like QuickBooks or Sage 300, preventing mismatches and double payments.

Evaluating vendors—on-time delivery, quality of materials, responsiveness—helps refine future procurement decisions. Emma compiles these metrics from the project logs, compares them to the agreed service level, and maintains a performance dashboard. This data-centric approach ensures subpar vendors are identified early, reducing costly project disruptions.

Scheduling & Resource Allocation

Coordinating labor, equipment, and tasks so construction milestones are met efficiently. Resource allocation prevents idle crews and ensures no bottlenecks.

Create Master Schedule

Construction schedules detail day-by-day tasks, from grading and excavation to finishing and handover. Emma reads Gantt charts or scheduling data in Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project, consolidating all tasks into a single master plan. This high-level overview helps managers see dependencies at a glance.

Assign Labor & Equipment

Determining which crew works where and whether the right machinery is available is often done by trial-and-error or repeated phone calls. Emma accesses employee rosters in Procore or BIM 360, automatically matching skill sets to tasks and checking equipment availability. This reduces scheduling conflicts and ensures minimal downtime between tasks.

Monitor Progress & Adjust

Delays from weather or late materials can throw off the entire schedule. Manually re-planning is time-consuming. Emma continuously compares planned vs. actual progress logs (e.g., from daily site reports), recalculates the timeline, and proposes adjustments in scheduling tools like PlanGrid or Fieldwire. This real-time optimization can save days of backtracking.

Generate Look-Ahead Schedules

Many construction firms use weekly or bi-weekly look-ahead meetings to plan short-term tasks. Emma can automatically generate these from the master schedule, highlighting critical path tasks due soon. This helps site supervisors and crews focus on immediate priorities without losing sight of the overall plan.

Track Overtime & Utilization

On large projects, overtime costs can soar if managers don’t keep an eye on labor utilization. Emma aggregates timesheet data from tools like TSheets or ExakTime, comparing them against budgeted hours. The AI can warn when particular crews are exceeding planned labor, allowing managers to reassign tasks or approve additional resources in a controlled manner.

On-Site Communication & Reporting

Ensuring field teams, project managers, and stakeholders stay informed of progress, issues, and changes. Clear, frequent communication reduces rework and helps avoid costly

Step 1

Daily Field Reports

Supervisors often fill out daily logs—who was on-site, what tasks were completed, any incidents. This can be a blend of paper forms, photos, or text messages. Emma collects all these data sources (e.g., from Procore Daily Logs or Raken), standardizes the format, and uploads them to the project system. This saves supervisors hours spent entering the same info multiple times.

Step 2

Real-Time Chat & Alerts

Construction sites rely on instant updates—e.g., ‘Concrete pour delayed,’ or ‘Crane down for maintenance.’ Emma integrates with messaging apps like Slack or Microsoft Teams to send automated alerts when certain triggers occur (late deliveries, weather warnings, safety incidents). This immediate communication helps teams respond faster and minimize downtime.

Step 3

Photo & Video Documentation

Photos track progress and verify quality. Manually uploading images and labeling them can be tedious. Emma automates photo categorization, reading metadata and matching them to tasks (e.g., foundation pour, framing) using solutions like PlanGrid or Autodesk Build. This organizes visual records for easy retrieval during closeout or future inspections.

Step 4

Issue Tracking & Escalation

Problems discovered on-site (e.g., incorrect installation, missing parts) often result in phone calls or emails. Emma logs these issues in a centralized system like Fieldwire or Basepin, auto-assigning them to responsible parties with due dates. This ensures accountability and tracks closure, preventing issues from being forgotten or repeated.

Step 5

Progress & Stakeholder Updates

Owners or executives may not read daily logs but want high-level weekly or monthly summaries. Emma merges daily reports and key metrics (budget consumed, percentage completed, major delays) into a succinct presentation. This automatically generated summary can be shared via email or a project portal, giving decision-makers a clear snapshot without manual consolidation by the PM team.

Document & Permit Management

Construction requires a variety of permits and regulated documents—zoning approvals, environmental clearances, building permits. Maintaining these ensures compliance and avoids legal or financial penalties.

Different regions have different rules. Manually identifying all relevant permits is laborious, especially if you’re operating across multiple jurisdictions. Emma scans municipal websites, building codes, and historical data in tools like Viewpoint or AccuLynx, compiling a checklist of required permits for each project phase.

Applying for a permit can take weeks or months, and lost paperwork means delays. Emma automates form submissions—pulling data from the design docs and official city forms. She keeps a digital timestamp of each submission in solutions like Bluebeam or Adobe Acrobat, ensuring managers know exactly when an application was submitted and to which department.

Construction permits can expire if a project goes past certain deadlines or if certain conditions change. Without automation, staff may miss renewal windows, risking a work stoppage. Emma monitors expiry dates and automatically files extension requests or renewal forms in CityGrows or relevant government portals, preventing sudden compliance gaps.

Throughout a project, construction plans may change due to design modifications or regulatory feedback. Emma version-controls PDFs and CAD files in Autodesk Docs or Procore, ensuring no outdated plans accidentally reach the field. This drastically reduces the chance of building to old specs.

In case of inspections or legal challenges, companies must present a traceable history of permits, approvals, and plan revisions. Emma consolidates all relevant documents into a single digital folder, tagging each item with appropriate metadata (date, version, approval status). This organized repository makes audits far less painful and time-intensive.

Quality Control & Inspections

Ensuring each construction phase meets specified quality standards, from foundation depth to finishing touches. Early detection of defects or deviations saves enormous rework costs.

Step 1

Define Quality Criteria

The project’s design documents and building codes outline critical measurements or materials. Manually extracting them can be error-prone. Emma scans PDFs or CAD files, identifying tolerance ranges, required tests (e.g., concrete slump test), and storing them in a QMS (Quality Management System) like Buildertrend or Procore.

Step 2

Schedule & Assign Inspections

Periodic checks—like rebar placement or structural steel welds—are crucial. Coordinating inspectors and tracking each inspection date can get messy. Emma automatically schedules inspections at key milestones, assigning them to internal QA teams or external inspectors via Fieldwire or PlanGrid, ensuring no step is skipped.

Step 3

Capture Inspection Results

Inspectors record pass/fail, measurements, or photos. Emma integrates with mobile apps that inspectors use on-site, pulling data into one system. This eliminates the repeated reentry of notes and ensures near-instant availability of inspection outcomes.

Step 4

Flag & Resolve Non-Conformance

If an inspection fails, a non-conformance report (NCR) is issued. Manually, these can be forgotten or filed late. Emma auto-generates NCR documents in Procore or BIM 360, assigning rectification tasks to the relevant subcontractor. Completion confirmations and retests are then tracked, ensuring no open issues linger.

Step 5

Maintain Quality Records

Regulatory bodies or future clients might request QC data for warranties or post-occupancy evaluations. Emma archives all inspection forms, photos, and certificates in a digital library, guaranteeing quick retrieval. This organized system also helps with continuous improvement, identifying recurring issues to address in future projects.

Safety & Compliance

Maintaining a safe work environment and adhering to OSHA (or local equivalents) standards. Construction sites have high-risk activities—safety processes prevent accidents, injuries, and costly shutdowns.

Step 1

Identify Hazards & Safety Requirements

Every site has unique hazards (working at heights, heavy machinery, confined spaces). Manually scanning through job hazard analyses (JHAs) is time-consuming. Emma reviews project plans and job scopes, matches them with known OSHA standards using solutions like SafetyTek or eCompliance, and highlights mandatory checks or PPE requirements.

Step 2

Employee Training & Certifications

Workers need valid certifications (e.g., forklift operation, fall protection). Tracking who’s certified for what is often done in spreadsheets. Emma maintains a live database of certifications in Procore Safety or KPA EHS, sends reminders before expiration, and ensures only authorized workers get assigned to tasks needing specific credentials.

Step 3

Daily Toolbox Talks

Supervisors often hold brief safety talks before starting work. Documenting these can be tedious. Emma automatically creates digital sign-in sheets, logs talk topics, and updates attendance in your safety software. This reduces paper clutter and easily proves compliance during audits.

Step 4

Incident Reporting & Investigation

If an accident or near-miss happens, staff must file forms, gather witness statements, and notify relevant agencies. Emma automates incident reporting in solutions like SmartBarrel or Raken, capturing all the details in one place. She also escalates follow-up tasks—ensuring corrective actions are completed and documented.

Step 5

Ongoing Compliance Monitoring

Safety rules change frequently. Emma scans OSHA updates or local regulations, comparing them to current site practices in software like SafetyCulture. If new guidelines appear, Emma notifies safety managers and updates the relevant protocols automatically. This constant vigilance helps maintain an accident-free site and protects against liabilities.

Cost Control & Billing

Monitoring expenses versus the project budget, issuing progress invoices to clients, and ensuring subcontractors or suppliers get paid accurately.

Track Project Expenses

Construction often involves daily expenses—from buying extra materials to equipment rentals. Manually logging every receipt is prone to errors. Emma ties into Sage 300 Construction or QuickBooks, pulling credit card statements, uploaded invoices, and purchase orders, categorizing each expense line item automatically. This real-time view avoids budget surprises.

Monitor Budget vs. Actual

Project managers typically scramble to compare actual spend with the baseline budget near deadlines. Emma does this continuously, highlighting cost overruns or underutilized funds. By integrating with Procore or CMiC, Emma sends alerts when any cost category exceeds a threshold, enabling proactive adjustments instead of last-minute panic.

Subcontractor Invoicing

Subs typically invoice monthly, based on percentage of work completed. Manually verifying these percentages against on-site progress is laborious. Emma matches subcontractor invoices with site logs and inspection data, ensuring the claimed completion aligns with reality. This reduces overpayment risks and disputes.

Client Progress Billing

Construction firms often bill clients in stages (milestones or percent completion). Emma creates and sends progress invoices through solutions like Procore Financials or Viewpoint, including backup documentation (photos, daily logs). Automated reminders ensure timely payments and maintain healthy cash flow.

Change Orders & Variations

Unexpected changes are common—scope increases, new client requests, or design alterations. Keeping track of each change order is crucial for billing. Emma automates the CO documentation process, capturing the agreed scope changes, updated costs, and revised schedules in the project software. This ensures no missed charges and transparent client communication.

Punch Lists & Project Closeout

Finalizing the build by checking off minor defects or finishing tasks—e.g., fixing paint touch-ups, installing missing fixtures—before handing the project over to the client.

Near project completion, a walkthrough identifies small fixes. Manually scribbling them on paper can lead to lost details. Emma documents each item in apps like PlanGrid Punch or BIM 360, tagging room locations and due dates. This organized approach ensures no detail is overlooked.

Each punch list item might be a 5-minute fix or a multi-day repair. Emma assigns tasks to the correct subcontractor or internal crew, setting deadlines and sending reminders through Procore or eSUB. This keeps fixes from slipping through the cracks, avoiding post-handover complaints from the client.

After tasks are done, an inspector or project manager must verify the work. Emma checks off completed items, updates the punch list, and logs relevant photos or notes for the record. This digital audit trail proves that each correction was addressed.

Final handover includes as-built drawings, warranties, and operational manuals. Gathering these is typically a frantic process if done at the last minute. Emma collates all documentation (e.g., updated CAD files, supplier warranties) into a single digital package in Procore or Box, making it quick and easy for the client to reference.

After closeout, top-performing construction firms conduct a ‘lessons learned’ review. Emma organizes all project data—cost breakdowns, schedule variance reports, quality issues—into a summary document or folder. This historical record, stored in a knowledge base, empowers continuous improvement for future builds.