AI Estimating Tool Cuts Contractor Preconstruction Hours
General contractors and estimating teams should pilot AI takeoff tools before committing to the company-reported time savings.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Construction
Togal.AI, a Miami-based company that grew out of Coastal Construction, won a SmartBrief Innovation Award in AI on November 2, 2026. Its machine-vision models read construction drawings to automate parts of estimating and takeoff work for contractors.
Why it matters
Preconstruction estimating has long been labor-heavy, so reducing it changes how contractors price bids and staff estimating teams. The award and the company's benchmark results signal that AI tools built specifically for construction drawings are moving from pilot to operational use.
Coastal Construction's revenue grew about 84 percent from 2023 to 2025, reaching $1.77 billion, and Consigli Construction has trained nearly 100 estimators on the platform against a $4 billion annual construction book. Togal.AI reports more than 10,000 users in 30 countries.
The players
Togal.AI
A Miami-based construction technology company that builds machine-vision software for reading and estimating from construction drawings.
Coastal Construction
A Miami-based contractor whose revenue reached $1.77 billion in 2025, and from which Togal.AI originated.
Consigli Construction
A Massachusetts-based general contractor with about $4 billion in annual construction work that has trained nearly 100 estimators on Togal.AI.
The details
Togal.AI trains machine-vision models to interpret construction drawings, a capability it says it has developed since 2019 using a proprietary dataset of tens of millions of construction plans. The software automates portions of takeoff and estimating, the quantity-measurement and pricing steps that precede a bid. Coastal Construction reports that the tool cut its rough order of magnitude estimating time sharply on tall projects, which is the early-stage cost check contractors run before detailed design is complete.
Timeline
2019: Togal.AI began training its technology to read blueprints.
2023 to 2025: Coastal Construction's revenue grew about 84 percent.
2026: Togal.AI was ranked Miami's fastest-growing technology company by percentage growth.
November 2, 2026: Togal.AI won a SmartBrief Innovation Award in AI.
Market Landscape
Construction's Last Exam, a 33-task open-source benchmark, gives contractors a common yardstick for comparing AI tools on real construction work. Togal.AI's 97.7 percent score sits far above the 2 to 34 percent range reported for leading general-purpose AI models on the same tasks.
Estimating and preconstruction teams should expect AI takeoff tools to be evaluated against the bid-cycle time they can actually shorten, not just the vendor claims. Contractors weighing these tools should request their own pilot results on a live project before changing staffing.
The takeaway
Operators should track whether preconstruction time savings hold up across more projects and firms, since the current figures come from the company and a partner contractor. A contractor considering the software should pilot it on an upcoming bid and compare the estimating hours against its current process before committing budget.
Further reading
For broader context on how contractors are adopting estimating technology, see our Construction coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Walls and Ceilings Magazine.
